Letter to the Editor 2/9 #2

To the Editor,’ ‘ ‘ I was appalled by the Feb. 5 article by Justin Jacobs called ‘Live music… To the Editor,’ ‘ ‘ I was appalled by the Feb. 5 article by Justin Jacobs called ‘Live music paying its dues to the tanking economy.’ Based on the idea that any money not spent on CDs would be spent on live concerts, Jacobs suggests that we need to steal recorded music in order to save our musical culture. By stealing artists’ work you are effectively placing its market value at zero ‘mdash; a complete slap in the face. Regarding maintaining musical culture, it’s tough to find venues that support local musicians and function as community centers for the arts more than local record stores. Jacobs’ article also did not take into account basic economics. He effectively assumes that everybody has a ‘music budget’ which will be spent either on CDs or live shows. In actuality, musical entertainment is an elastic good: In these economically trying times, if someone saves money on CDs, they won’t necessarily spend it on something else. Telling people to steal CDs to go to concerts is equivalent to telling them to steal your textbooks from the school store. So I urge all readers, if you don’t have enough money to both go to concerts and buy CDs, you need to make a choice. Pick one or the other. Man up and pay for your living. Henry Brinkerhoff, student