Chapter 4: Musicians Look Por Pay In An MP3 World

Laura Sydel makes a point that with the spread of music on the internet, sales in music have gone down tremendously. As Attorney Don Passman says, "You can't compete with free", and Sydel believes that this will also lower the value of music that will be created in the future, considering that if artists know it'll be available for free on the internet, they won't work as hard at it (For the 2 billion songs iTunes sells a year, 15 billion a year are pirated). What differs in this audio segment is that Laura Sydel argues that this may actually help some artists. The video becomes different from the Lars Ulrich standpoint when she mentions Jonathan Coulton, a low-key artist who posts his music online. Coulton says that he gets a fanbase from doing this, a benefit which many artists overlook. He also says that he has much more freedom than if he were to sign with a record label, and while he isn't making fortunes, he has made enough to quit his day job.