[troutman]

http://stereogum.com/1069672/david-l...-sharing/news/

On Monday, June 16, NPR All Songs Considered intern Emily White published an essay in which she admitted that, while she boasted an iTunes library comprising some 11,000 songs, she had only purchased 15 CDs in her lifetime.

The piece struck a nerve with former Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery, who responded to White yesterday with a 3,300-word missive that grapples with White’s confessions as well as many issues never explicitly raised by White.

He crunches some numbers, concluding that White owes $2,139.50 to the artists whose music she has obtained sans payment.

For all its weaknesses, his essay is essential reading: passionate, eloquent and urgent. Read it here.

Do you agree with Lowery’s argument? Or do you think it falls short of addressing the problem? Do you pay for music, or are you, like White, sitting on a library of songs you obtained via sharing?