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Megaupload: We Just Don’t Care

By Ural Garrett

@Uralg

For the last week, controversy came when popular p2p download site MEGAUPLOAD was shut down due to copy write infringement. The biggest shock(even to those who frequent the site themselves) came in the news that mega producer Kasseem “Swizz Beats” Dean was the CEO of the company. Though he would later sorta deny/sorta admit his position with the company.

To the average web-head, MEGAUPLOAD is simply a safe way to download illegally uploaded music but many companies use it as a way to upload photos, files, ect… Seeing the different levels of subscriptions and the company’s structure, it sounds like a  uniquely lucrative venture.  That’s not where the story ends either.

Allegedly in the future, MEGAUPLOAD was suppose to challenge the likes of Pandora and Spotify for online music dominance. The difference was that MEGAUPLOAD would allow artists to keep 90 percent of earnings as oppose to the other sites that require a certain amounts of listens before even making a cent.

In fact Busta Rymes chimed in his thoughts:

1st of all I am soooo proud of my brother @THEREALSWIZZZ 4 being apart of creating something (MEGAUPLOAD) that could create the most powerful way 4 artists 2 get 90% off of every dollar despite the music being downloaded 4 free…

With labels and companies doin’ deals with Spotify and many other companies like it who doesn’t give us shit…

Interesting how the average consumer can care less about the cries of Busta and many of hundreds of artists crying over money.

In an age of high unemployment, higher cost of living and lower wages, people just don’t time to care about issues in entertainment. In fact, consumers have never cared. Looking for more evidence? Look at the start of the digital age almost ten years ago in the form of Napster.

While artists and labels complained about illegal downloads, the average thought process was “you’re make plenty of money already, why should I care if you go without another $100k?”

I remember watching a rapper on MTV cribs around that time showing off his plethora of high price cars and million dollar mansion and in an interview, complaining of how music downloads were costing him millions.

And I thought to myself. Why should I care?

Though I’ve grown to understand the complexity of the music industry there is one thing I know about major label artists, they make a whole lot more than me. That’s a sentiment that many listeners around the nation feel.

That’s why many can care less when an artists files for bankruptcy for mainly buying frivolous purchases while many are struggling to make ends meet. While 21-year-old Soulja Boy files for bankruptcy and clams of a shady record label deal, there’s someone his same age figuring out ways to pay their student loans.

This is how internet radio and free music sites are thriving because free is good and if it’s at the price of an artists not being able to afford that extra BMW than why should they care?

Or maybe the image of wealth is an illusion but that’s another issue for later.