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For years the consumer has been hung out to dry by the greedy record companies. In my lifetime, I have spent many many thousands of pounds on music, not realising the extent of profits filling into the fat cat suits that run the top record levels.

So, the consumer takes something back - music sharing. All of a sudden this has halted their relentless profits, and made them realise that Joe Public could not care less what label presents the music - the interest is all about the music again. Thanks to the ipod generation, music sharing and discovering has hit a whole new level. Businessmen with suits, old ladies and the youngsters all can be see with the trade mark white 'phones while cutting about the streets. Not since the days of Walkman has the music been enjoyed by so many.

The point of ethics comes down to what music you are downloading, your other forms of music purchase and even your attitude to sharing your own stuff. I would rather nothing else than be assured that the money i hand over for music goes straight to the pocket of the musicians themselves. This is now on offer with certain streams, and when you have artists like Madonna, Prince and Radiohead seeing that the music buying population want to deal direct with them, the record companies are in real trouble.

Would I feel sad if Warner, Sony or EMI disappeared tomorrow. Probably not. Just because the balance sheet goes, the music and great work done by previous generation lives in the collections and hearts of fans. This further celebrates music sharing.

My person music search centres around old music - artists who are often dead now. Should I feel guilty about accessing their materials on line via file sharing sites? No. The person who crafted the music is not able to benefit form record sales, as their work is not available through normal outlets - because they are not mainstream artists with massive budgets, TV deals or stupid product tie-ins. Other artists are generally up and coming acts - who would happily take any route to make it - and if that comes form thousands of downloads and files shared, I am sure they would not mind - especially if it means they have full gigs and a fan base in the making.

I am lucky as I get given a lot of free music through my music magazine activities, however if I find an artist who I rate, I am happy to step into store and line up to buy the record. That's where your ethics get proved. If you cannot turn the new music found into sales where appropriate, then you should not download - as you are stealing, not exploring. This goes for you not allowing share on your files with other users. Taking all the time, and not sharing the great stuff with other music lovers is just wrong. If this is you - stop it! Stop it now!

In conclusion, make your own mind up on the ethics, just keep music alive. Keep it alive, by going to gigs, buying random albums, listening to stuff on websites, steal bands from your friends and then pass them on to others and standing in line HMV when you need to.

Learn more about this author, Donald Stephenson.
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