Eminem threatens fans who upload his music onto Internet: I was going to let one of the more regular writers comment on this, but no one seems interested in doing so. I’m somewhat conflicted on this. On the one hand, he certainly has a point: fans who are using the Internet to get their hands on a copy so that they won’t have to pay for it are stealing something off of Em’s bottom line. However, how many of the people who have downloaded the album intend to buy it? How many of them would borrow a friend’s copy and listen to that before buying it? How many of them would copy their friend’s CD, either onto a tape or a CD-R? How can execs in the music industry point to online piracy as the number one culprit for declining CD sales when the cost of a new CD has steadily risen to $19? Eminem’s ranting, while certainly in keeping with his public persona, strikes me (Ha, “strikes me”. Marshall’s gonna get pretty tired if he actually tries to punch every fan who has uploaded/downloaded his album. ICP should put up a high bandwidth feed on their site) as remarkably short-sighted and ultimately harmful. In the long run, his attitudes are more beneficial to the record labels than they are the artists.
(Okay, I will ‘fess up: the entire purpose of this post was to link Insane Clown Posse on NYLPM.)