불법 mp3 다운로드는 결국....

얼마 전에 Scars of Life라는 밴드를 알았다. 얼터너티브, 뉴메탈 쪽 음악을 하는 그룹이었는데, 예전 생각(?)도 나고...해서 계속 듣고 있었는데(물론 mp3로..), 어느 덧 이 밴드의 근황이 궁금해져서 웹사이트를 들어가봤다.

http://www.scarsoflife.com

2005년 앨범 'What We Reflect' 이후에는 더이상 새 앨범도 없고, 웹페이지 화면도 2005년에서 멈춰진 듯 했다..."역시나 망했구나.."이런 생각을 하다가 혹시나 해서 Forum에 들어가봤다.

그리고 이러한 공지글을 보게 되었다.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess this deserves an announcement finally.

Burning red has officially disbanded. We gave it a good shot, but it was not meant to be.

The main reason for this is the industry as a whole is in the shitter. There is just no future in music anymore. I know that sounds bad, but its the truth right now. No new bands are doing even close to good these days, and its all thanks to illegal downloading. That may sound like a likely excuse or a cop-out, but its the god honest truth. The only bands making a living anymore are the ones that were popular before it got bad. Record companies dont sign many bands anymore, and the ones they do sign they dont promote. They just put a CD on a few store shelves and send you off on tour with little or no support. We learned that bitter lesson in scars of life. Record companies just dont have the money to get bands on the radio or in magazines anymore. Back in the day, "breaking a band" took up to millions of dollars, but those days are long gone. We have known so many good bands that try to tour and end up breaking up from the lack of support, poor show attendance, and living on less than $10 a day. Its pretty bad if you can barely make enough money to pay the gas to the next gig, then come home to having no place to live, no money, and often no friends left. It got to the point where we were faced with the decision to give up everything we have to go play in front of 10 people a night and scrape to feed ourselves. We were faced with a bleak existence. We all loved the music very much an poured our hearts and souls into it, but
there was just nowhere to go from here. We really appreciated all of the love and support we got from our fans all over the world, but in the end they were the ones that unknowingly took our dreams. Its kind of ironic that we got popular by putting our songs on downloading services, and it turned out to be our downfall. Hard lesson learned.

We want to wish any new bands that are working their asses to carve out their place in the world the sincerest best of luck. Hopefully one day the music industry will recover and bands will find a way to make it their life. Until then, we can only sit by and watch as our choices in music get smaller and smaller. Maybe someday everyone will realize that downloading is stealing no matter how you slice it, and the people it hurts most are the artists themselves.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
간단히 말하면 'mp3 download하는 놈들 때문에 못해먹겠다.'였다.

그렇다. 솔직히 Linkin Park와 같은 메인스트림 뮤지션들은 워낙 '기본으로 판을 사주는' 사람들이 많아서 나같은 놈들이 아무리 다운로드 해도 꿈쩍도 않는다.

하지만 Scars of Life와 같은 나머지 대부분의 밴드들에게는 치명적일 수 밖에 없는 것이다.
알고는 있었지만, 이렇게 글을 보니 와닿기도 하고...가슴이 아팠다.

그들 스스로 '자신들의 영혼을 불어넣은' 음악을 난 클릭 한 두번으로 다운받아 듣고 있었으니...

하지만 난제는 많다. 이런 밴드들은 한국 라이센스반을 기대할 수 없다. 수입반이나 가끔 구할 수 있지만, 너무나 비싼 가격은 망설이게 한다.

정품만 듣는 사람들은 '비싸서 못사면 듣지 말아야지.'라는 그럴싸한(?) 논리를 펴지만, 또 나같은 사람들에게는 그렇게 쉽지만은 않다. 이런 논리라면 난 CD값으로 한 달에 몇십만원씩 지출해야 하는데...상식적으로 불가능한 일이다.

참, 가슴 아프기도 하고...미안하기도 한 날이다.