I have been a Pirate For Quite sometime...

[stevenchase]

And Realized that no matter how you spin it. It's stealing and it's wrong. It has been a good run though, trying out all the New VST's and then buying the ones you REALLY like. Nowadays, I download to try it, and if I like it, I go out and buy it. Because, when the Record Label or Bigger Boys in the Game ask, "What the hell are you using to master with?" And I reply with "Waves Mercury Bundle!"...They pretty much say...Goddamn Pirate...It's frowned upon and the last thing I realized I need to do is Jeapordize my music career with someone finding out that I pirate all the programs I use to make music. That's why I have legitimized all of my Production Tools. Makes for a safer, hassle free environment to navigate in.
Just My Two cents from a guy who until recently pirated over 2 TB of Music Making Programs/Sample Librarys/VST's and the Like. And the funniest part of all is...I only used a very select few of the VST's/Samples to create the music! So I bought them, and spent time learning how to manipulate the samples/Plugins so I could get any sound I wanted without having a MASSIVE amount of presets to flip through. And the other funny thing is, now that I'm getting ready to release a few singles on a relatively big record label, I can't help but stress over how much of my music is going to get pirated! Haha...Serves Me Right, but at least I NEVER shared it with anybody. Just somehow fell into downloading music software when I was 16, learned how to use it well, bought the stuff I loved, and am now releasing Tracks.
Thanks for Reading!

[chrisso]

Originally Posted by stevenchase

And Realized that no matter how you spin it. It's stealing and it's wrong.
Because, when the Record Label or Bigger Boys in the Game ask, "What the hell are you using to master with?" ...They pretty much say...Goddamn Pirate...It's frowned upon and the last thing I realized I need to do is Jeapordize my music career with someone finding out that I pirate all the programs I use to make music. That's why I have legitimized all of my Production Tools.

Nice confession. Congrats.
Although you say you realised pirating was wrong, then explain how you don't want to jeapordize your career by being found out.

[Balz]

Although it would be easier, I decided before I started recording for cash that I would never use cracked software in anything that I record/produce. I`d like to be a good role model for the kids. I do subscribe to the `try before you buy`philosophy though when it comes to software and I`ll admit to downloading music like crazy. The fact is that I`m not in a position to buy music ($610/month from the government doesn`t really go very far) and haven;t been able to buy any music for a long time. Having said that, if I DID have money I`d like to be able to make informed decisions when it comes to spending that money. If there`s a great artist out there who deserves my money then I`d like to know that, and I don`t know of any better way to find that out than to download LOTS of music through P2P networks. For what it`s worth, I find downloading music to be morally defensible and enjoyable, and I believe that all of my `research` will soon result in a larger amount of my money going to better quality artists than had I not been as well educated.

[Balz]

While I`m at it, I`ll also confess to enjoying pre-marital sex and to having political opinions even when I didn`t vote.

[chrisso]

Originally Posted by Balz

I find downloading music to be morally defensible and enjoyable

Enjoyable yes, how so morally defensible?

[Susceptor]

Originally Posted by Balz

larger amount of my money going to better quality artists

Is it really going to the artist? Or to the label that will only pay a small procent of it ot the artist?

[chrisso]

Yes, your money is going to the artist.

[drBill]

Are we supposed to congradulate you??? tutttutt

[Chrislpp]

Man, if you're making money from a program, buy it. Nobody likes a knock off Nigel, rich coming from me who actually has that Mercury Bundle crack (make me pay several grand just to see what the hype was about, go on!). Don't use it, tried them, some of them, some are cool I guess but I wasn't that bothered really testing them out and am still sticking to Logic and am confident I can mix better there, but when they charge $600 for a single Ultramaximizer? Nah thank you, then they have it in a bundle and on average it's now half price Damn, I aint paying to think I'm gonna be Tony Mas. You can easily see that they are ripping you off because they have some endorsements.

But I use a mac, all those plugins are gonna have to be bought, and I find cubase horrible to work in.

I was even pretty shocked at that GTR program.

[chrisso]

Simple answer.
Just use what you can afford to buy.
It's the man/woman, not the software that makes great music.

[ambiguity]

In one sentence it's stealing and it's wrong, and in the other, the justification for legitimizing your software is so you wouldn't get caught red-handed.

High price of software is a ****ed up excuse.

[Chrislpp]

Originally Posted by dragan

High price of software is a ****ed up excuse.

albeit still one of the reasons.

But of course, there are many jobs and in those jobs plenty of money within the industry