The flyer reads: DON’T buy any magazine, newspaper, DON’T download ANY song (legally or illegaly), DON’T watch any movie at the cinema, DON’T buy ANY DVD or videogame and DON’T buy any book.

A boycott would likely send a message, if enough earth citizens would participate in it. It would also hurt people that have no say in the matter but earn their living from it, like the small bookstore owner, a record store and even the cinema in your town. It could also impact the creative people of the entertainment business, people who do not have any say when it comes to company policy.

When you look at the options that the average joy (you and I) have, it boils down to two. You can first vote with your money, which is what the operation proposes. Your second option is to make yourself heard in another way. Let politicians know what you oppose, send them letters, call their offices.

My counter-proposal would look like this:

• Boycott select media companies and all their sub-companies. These companies should be the worst lobbyists that influence politicians with fancy meals and money. Create and maintain a list of those companies. Boycott means to stop buying anything they produce until they change their minds. This includes boycotting company websites, their offers on streaming media sites and television.
• The second important part would be to inform said companies and politicians about it. Let your local representatives know that you are opposing those bills, that it is an important matter to you, and that you will vote for someone else if they support bills. Let them know that you will NEVER vote for them again if they should EVER support such a bill again. Affected Media companies should also be informed by you, that you have stopped buying their goods, and that you won’t buy them anymore until they change their ways.
• Maintain a list of alternatives, either free or companies that openly oppose censorship and other efforts to restrict access to the Internet and freedom of expression.

What’s needed for this? A list of lobbying companies and politicians needs to be created and maintained. This list needs to be publicly accessible on the Internet. Postal addresses, phone numbers and if possible electronic mail addresses need to be collected so that it is easy as pie to contact your representatives and the companies.

Let me know where you stand in the matter.

The only one who is really affected is the one who is buying CDs and DVDs. Releasing copy proctected media is not enough of course, the MI influences governments as well to outlaw people who copy CDs with copy protection or download them from the internet. They want you to purchase the same media three or four times if you want to listen to it at home, at your notebook, in your car and in your mp3 player.

Some companies try to even get more control over the consumers computer by adding additional controlling software to the media. Sony for instance decided it would be a good idea to install a rootkit on the clients computer to ensure no media would be copied.

Again only real consumers experienced this measure. People who downloaded them from the internet had no problem with this at all.

I think it is time to boycott the Music Industry and find other ways to enjoy music from bands and companies that are not part of this MI. My article tries to list alternatives without paying a dime to the MI.

Don´t get me wrong. Artists deserve money for their work, I do not advocate to do something illegal to get the music you like. I only present a different approach.

Here we go..

1. Buy used CDs and trade CDs

You find thousands of used music CDs at online shops like Ebay or Amazon Marketplace. The media has been purchased before and everything you pay will reach the person who is selling the media. (with a small amount for the company who provides the plattform).

I have no experience in trading CDs but a google search reveals lots of interesting results on the topic. Maybe you already have experience with such a service and would like to comment on it. Let us know if this is a working alternative.

2. Borrow CDs.

This might work in some countries while others do not allow this at all. Borrow CDs from friends and listen to those CDs, it´s legal in some countries to copy the content for a friend as well. Check your local laws.

3. Support local bands / bands without major contracts

Many local bands manage everything themselves. They produce their own CDs, they create T-Shirts and play in local clubs and bars. The majority of the earnings will reach the band and the people working with the band.

This is a great way to support a band directly.

4. Listen to (internet) radio and record it

Listening to internet radio is free. Websites like shoutcast, di.fm and xiph.org offer links to streams of thousands of free radio stations. You will find radio stations for mainstream music as well as stations that play stuff like gospel and swing.

It is legal in some countries to record those radio streams using so called streamrippers that download the stream while you listen to it. (There are actually some tools out there that are able to record more than one stream).

Take a look at my guide to streamripping if you are interested in this. Streamer-Radio is another freeware tool that can record streams.
Pandora offers a unique service but is still considered an internet radio station. You enter a song or artist name and it tries to find matching artists that play in the same style. You need to register to hear more than a few songs though. Read this article if you want to find out how to save pandora streams.

5. Audio Blogs / Podcasts

Audio Blogs provide their visitors with audio content. This could be in the form of downloadable mp3 files or music streams. Many encourage their visitors to download the mp3 files, some offer options to buy a CD if you like the music.

Visit monkeyfilter.com for a large list of audio blogs.

75 Minutes is a great podcast site that links to free music. Podsafe Music Network offers many songs as well.

6. Download free music

Thousands of websites exist that offer free mp3 downloads. It could be that a musician offers (part of) his music on a website for free or that a company who sells music is offering free sample songs.

The following list contains only sites that offers many songs for free, some demand a registration before you can download songs but that should be ok in my opinion.

Altsounds Alternative Music Online (no registration)
Amazon Free Music Downloads (registration required)
Archive.org (no registration)
Artistlaunch (no registration)
Audiostreet (registration required)
Audiri (no registration)
CD Baby (no registration)
DMusic (no registration)
Download.com (registration required)
Epitonic (no registration)
Etree (registration required)
Garageband (no registration)
Oddio Overplay (no registration)
Oggle (no registration)
Pure Volume (no registration)
Singing Fish (no registration)
Soundlife (no registration)

Please digg this article if you like it.