Your band just finished recording it's first album. You funded the whole thing yourself and spent hour after excruciating hour in the studio getting everything as good as you possibly could. Writing and arranging the songs was a ton of work, but you've also spent a lot of money recording, mixing, mastering and replicating your cds. After putting this much blood, sweat, and tears into an album the last thing you want is a some jerk stealing it.......

(sound of need scratching an old vinyl record)

Wait just a damn minute. Stealing it? The only time someone steals your record is when they break into your house and grab one of your cds out of a box. I guess if they shoplift your cd out of the local music store, it would also be called stealing. That's it. Drill that into your head right now. The RIAA uses the word ?steal? in all their adds because they are running a totally different business than you. Running a band does involve selling records, but it also involves live shows. The RIAA is about selling records only. So don't let RIAA jargon ruin your band because you refuse to be generous with your music online. If anything, based on your position, you should probably be the one being generous.

If you think the world owes your band something, you are in for a rude awakening. You should feel blessed that a total stranger would take their precious time to download your music. I know bands who considered the idea of paying people to actually listen to their music just to get the word out. Even big time record labels pay radio stations to play their songs. If you managed to get a person to show enough initiative to click ?save? on an mp3 without paying the person to save your mp3, you should be thankful.

When a person clicks on an mp3 on your website and saves it to their mp3 folder, what crime has been committed? Seriously! What are you going to tell the police? Are you going to tell your attorney that this person stole from you? What's missing? What did you own that you no longer have possession of? That person is giving you exactly what you want. He just may be giving you another fan.

When a person clicks on an mp3 on your website, you should send them a free ice cream coupon to show them just how thankful you are that they took a minute to listen. You should be thankful that they are toying around with the idea of being a fan of your music. If you can even get a small percentage of these people to say ?Hey, this is pretty good?, then you've won.

If you could find a way to get your music out there via the peer to peer programs, you should do it. Sure, P2P programs aren't going to directly pay you, but how much did you really make at your last live show? I consider any method of getting your music heard by an audience that knows who you are is priceless. In fact, radio doesn't directly pay you (accept for a little publishing) and many times the audience has no idea who you even are. All you really need the internet to do for you is convince a few people to say ?Hey, I like this. I'm going to tell my friend about this band?.

Let's assume that you could get 10 people to say ?Hey, this is pretty good, I'll tell my friend about this band?. Where are you? Well, you've made no cd sales, but 10 people have heard your music. If you had a way to get these 10 people to your live show, you could make $50 off them just getting them to show up. (Actually, no one goes to shows alone, so it's possible that you could make 2-4 times that much) . What if you could get 1,000,000 people to say ?Hey, this is pretty good, I'll tell my friend about this band?? Well, you've made no cd sales, but 1,000,000 people like your music. If you had a way to get these 1,000,000 people to your live show, you would makes $5,000,000 off them just for getting them to show up (actually, much more because this would be a huge tour). It's reasonable that a small percentage of these people may even buy your record. So regardless if you are playing to 10 people or to 1,000,000 you may be able to count on 10 percent actually buying the record. That 10% is just a guess. I through it out there so that bands understand that if they want to sell1,000 cd they need to play to 10,000 new people.

I knew a band that made well over $100,000 in one year just playing in a town of about 35,000 people. They were extremely successful with the college crowd and played to shows of over 2000 people all the time. Unfortunately, they broke up before releasing their first album.

I guess the point of this article is to say that the RIAA has very little to do with you if you are an unsigned band. Forget about their philosophies. Their business isn't doing so hot anyway. Think of the bands who have adopted the RIAA's philosophies. The public opinion of Metallica is stills suffering because of their Napster court case. You don't want to be looked at as ?the asshole band? of your hometown.

You do want to be looked at as the most successful band in your hometown. That will come from being a great band with great music with a great live show who is more than willing to be as generous as possible to its fans. Don't think about what you are losing, focus on what you can give. If you can give enough, people will give back.