Another perspective on file-sharing

From Blog Bites, I found this interesting take on file-sharing. I've stated before that file-sharing is probably only an issue to labels and artists who sell a lot of records--your everyday musician probably makes more money from performing than selling records. This guy, Scott Andrew, points out that therefore file-sharing might help, not hurt, musicians who aren't famous.

I'm sure there are people out there who have every song I've ever released on their hard drives, who really like the music, and haven't paid me any cash for it. You could argue that these people have "stolen" from me, but have they really? What if they tell ten friends how much they like it? What if they bring those ten people to my next show? What if they buy my next CD as a result of liking my first one?

He's got a point. When I tell a friend, "Oh, you'd like blah blah band," they forget. If I make them a mix disc with a song by that band, they remember. They may not buy the disc or they may, but they will very likely go to the next show. People who go to a lot of shows in cities like Austin that are clearinghouse cities for new bands collectively exert a lot of influence. A band who spends a year working hard here and building up a loyal audience for their live shows has a potential for a huge payoff at times like SXSW. It's a joke amongst us local yokels how lately we've been practically tackled by record label types and journalists who want to know what local bands to see at SXSW.

Not to say that any of this actually means anything, but it could. It seems to me that the avenues fans have built up to communicate with each other about music, of which file-sharing is one, can't be discounted altogether. It's a publicity machine in its own right.