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Introduction
We believe one of the main problems the music industry has had in attacking illegal file sharing is that those that engage in it see themselves as a kind of "Robin Hood"—taking from the big bad record companies and rich fat cat artists and giving to the poor (themselves).
But, there is another side to this and one that perhaps might change some behavior if that side was more visible. It's the stories of the musicians, songwriters, demo players and singers, road musicians, label, publishing, publicity, and manager staffs, the record store clerks and all the rest of the people who no longer have jobs thanks to the 40 billion tracks per year being stolen on the internet1.
On this page, we will collect the stories of those in the music business (or other creative fields) whose livelihoods have been destroyed by illegal file sharing. Note:2
Stories
Italian-based Recording Engineer - March 21, 2009
Leaving for greener pastures becomes a very sad thought for me and for them [my kids], the ex is just snickering as my life is going down the chute. I'm selling a piece at a time [my audio recording gear] to get by but by now I'm looking to off all of it in one bang and reinvest in something much smaller. The day job theory is just not happening, although in the past 2 years since I've closed I've done some live sound for theater, straight up roadie (I'm 48) waiter, painter and laborer but nothing stable. I've sold a vintage piano, a vintage [guitar], a matched pair of VM-1 for peanuts, a control 24, 4 STT-1, 2 TD-1, 2 HDV3 8, 2 V72, 2 Prism ADA8, etc…, I'm now broke and looking at homelessness and I still have a bunch of stuff to sell but no one's buying. Besides I have a bunch of really nicely designed flight cases, a power distribution system and a signal distribution system that seem wonderful only to me, I'm sure someone could really use them but I don't even know where to look anymore. Luckily a friend will let me use his extra garage to store some stuff and I may be able to move in with him for a while while I straighten my ass out. Positive note is… I'm playing a lot more and teaching percussion and music theory… but this is not paying a lot at the moment… there's hope. After all the hassles I've gone through recording the meager provincial talent here (apart from some really special projects); non payment of services while product has left the house ("friend" deals) a producer who committed suicide and sunk a whole audio video biography project worth 20 grand in production and just some general basic sleazy behavior, I don't even want to think about having a studio anymore. Big fish small pond no happy, that could be my American Indian name by now. I've heard of rough times and seen some myself but never like this, the industry has shrunk… (Emphasis added.)
Prominent Nashville Writers Round Host - March 30, 2010
I am in the Nashville market weekly, and see so many artist and writers that have lost their positions or pub deals because of this [music theft]. In the last year somewhere between two and three hundred folks have told me their incomes have fallen drastically or completely.
