I've been trying to follow this court decision involving worldwide file sharing site The Pirate Bay, and it's got me thinking a lot about the subject, and the music industry as a whole, so here's my thoughts (mostly random) on it, let me know what you think.

Con: The bands work hard. It's their music. Support them. Give them props. They need to make money in order to keep doing what they love doing.

Pro: The music is free. With seemingly limitless good music out there, it's impossible to buy every piece of music that you'd be into, especially in times of economic struggles, so freebies are always appreciated. And some people just like to "stick it to the man," the man being both the record execs that you think overcharge you for everything and the musicians that make way too much money to just play around and waste it on excess.

Con: If everybody only got their music for free, the record companies and the bands would not make money, and would be forced to close down, and then there would no more music to download or even hear. This is obviously taken to an extreme conclusion, possibly even an illogical one, but an argument that record companies use. Without being on the inside, it's impossible to say how truly likely this could ever be.

Con: Audio quality is going down. While digital sound can be crisp and clean, I think it loses the richness of vinyl (they just require more care to keep clean). Bands still spend countless amounts of money to make their music sound the best possible, and yet we settle for lower quality files played on lower quality machines (like a blackberry) through lower quality speakers.

Pro: Convenience of Portability. CD's were great because you could play them in your car or walkman and take your music anywhere. And everyone had those great CD cases to lug their hundreds of CD's everywhere they go. Now with mp3 players and phones increasing that convenience since they're smaller even than CD players, and you don't have to lug around a gigantic case to have your entire music library at your fingertips, you can be listening to music no matter where you are or what you're doing. So you need more music in that format to fill up your 24-hour listening timetable.

Con: The loss of the whole artistic production. I, for one, love having the physical piece of music, and seeing how the packaging and everything works together, from the actual songs to the picture on the CD/vinyl, to the album cover, to the printed lyrics (if there are any), to anything else the band might throw in. I especially love it when they do something out of the ordinary, like Radiohead putting a second booklet hidden behind the CD tray of Kid A (go ahead, take the whole plastic case apart, it's there) or the whole flip-book and poster of Hail to the Thief Special Edition, Interpol's poster in the black embossed special version of Our Love To Admire, The oldness of Smashing Pumpkins' MACHINA complete with "fading" from the CD face onto the back of the booklet and Copper Staples, to Tool's old-school view master 3D goggles on 10,000 Days, to the simple pink piece of cardboard with a fly of Sunny Day's LP2, to the illustrations that enhance the story of Mae's Everglow. These are just a few examples of incredible artistic touches that are sadly lost when you buy/pirate songs and albums from the internet.

However, I do hate it when packaging and/or album tracklisting is radically different between CD's and vinyls. Obviously, there will be some differences, but try to be as consistent as possible, and don't give the people that buy one format bonus stuff that people that prefer the other format won't get, whether it be added tracks, bonus discs, DVD's pictures in the liner notes, or printed lyrics. Which leads me into my next thought...

Pro: When remixes and b-sides are only found on a bonus CD that only comes with the CD version and not the vinyl, or worse yet, that only come with the pre-order on itunes (or the new itunes Pass that they have for the new Depeche Mode album), it's really frustrating for someone who wants their music on vinyl (or CD if the album isn't coming out on vinyl, but still wants those extra tracks and remixes. I would even be willing to buy those tracks off itunes, but they're album only or pass only. Thanks a lot, itunes. I actually want both a vinyl and digital copy of songs, but I don't think I should have to pay twice for that. I understand the argument of having to pay for copyrighted music, but that shouldn't be separated by format. So...hello, file sharing.

Those are just a few of my random thoughts on the subject, what about you?