Notes on FREELOADING
Purchase your copy of Freeloading here
Named a “Favorite Music Book of 2012″ by the Future of Music Coalition
“A wonderful book that catches an encouraging shift in the zeitgeist. Ruen’s epiphany regarding the effects of his own piracy and freeloading on the bands he loves was eye opening–for me, at least. Although he mainly deals with music, the arguments he presents will apply to print and other media equally. I’ve recommended this book to a number of friends, some of whom may have felt this discussion was over…it’s not. After a couple of decades of waffling, it’s really just begun.” -David Byrne, musician and author of How Music Works
“Compelling.” -Tiny Mix Tapes
“A deeply moral and passionate book.” -Sydney Sunday Herald
“Fascinating.” -The Village Voice
“An extremely readable book on the subject that all music makers and listeners should read.” -MAGNET Magazine
“An agonizing, difficult read for anyone who both loves music and has illegally downloaded it.” -The American Conservative
“On the must-read list of anyone in the copyright sphere… Highly recommended.” -Copyhype
“Chris Ruen is one of the most compelling and forward thinking critics of our current download culture.” -M3 Music Conference (Netherlands)
“Too often, arguments about copyright online come down to talking points: Theft, Internet freedom, or rhetoric about major label evils. With a critic’s eye and a music fan’s passion, Ruen shows how piracy affects artists and lays bare the corporate agendas on both sides of the debate. An essential read for anyone worried about how artists will survive in the online age.” -Robert Levine, author of Free Ride
“The original slacker’s dream of free everything may have been realized by the Internet—but along with it came the slacker’s nightmare of never getting paid for one’s creativity. Freeloading seeks—and to a large extent succeeds—to wrestle with the collapse of the commons and the possibilities for a renewed social contract.” -Douglas Rushkoff, bestselling author of Life, Inc. and Present Shock
As the battle rages over piracy, copyright, and the future of the Internet, which group argues on the right side of history? Searching for the truth, Freeloading roams the spunky streets of Brooklyn to glean real world consequences of digitization for today’s musicians, indie record labels and fans; then re-evaluates the pivotal controversies and ideas that have long dominated file-sharing debates, with a keen eye for practical solutions.
Freeloading ranges from Napster to the SOPA blackout, from the pitfalls of social media to how corporate patronage of “indie” music spread as record sales sunk. Featuring candid and illuminating interviews with Kyp Malone of TV on The Radio, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Chris Swanson of Secretly Canadian and Ira Wolf Tuton of Yeasayer, among many others.
Published by:
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O/R Books in the US and Canada
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Scribe Publications in Australia and New Zealand
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Scribe UK (United Kingdom, October 2013)
LATEST PRESS & HAPPENINGS
(VIDEO) David Byrne in conversation with Chris Ruen at the New York Public Library
Freeloading Reviewed by Tiny Mix Tapes‘ Joe Hemmerling
“While Ruen assembles an impressive arsenal of support for his position, the entire crux of his argument lays in a simple premise: that an artist has the exclusive right to ‘distribute works in a manner as s/he chooses’ and are entitled to ‘extend that right… to any legal business partner.’ It’s a statement so self-evident that it shouldn’t even need to be defended; however, given the historical context surrounding the freeloading debate, it becomes much easier to see how we, as a society, have lost sight of this.”
Freeloading profiled by VICE/Motherboard
“Ruen’s book is a detailed look at his own personal relationship with the music industry, as well as an investigation into how and why our culture views the practice as it does. He interviews the very artists whose lives influenced his shift in thinking. ‘I don’t know why the angry armchair quarterbacks would pick this issue,’ the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn tells Ruen, ‘…music is being separated from the rest of commerce.’”
The Misplaced Zeal of Aaron Swartz by Chris Ruen (Seattle Weekly)
“Like most people, I was saddened to learn of the recent self-inflicted death of 26-year-old Aaron Swartz—the wunderkind computer mind and tireless Internet freedom activist who helped galvanize public support to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2012.”
Appearance on Al Jazeera English show The Stream (Video)
With Cory Doctorow, Jonathan Coulton and others.
Freeloading noted in The American Conservative
“A new book called Freeloading, by Chris Ruen, focuses on the fallout of the free content economy for artists who might loosely be grouped in Hyden’s not-Black Keys category–more avant-garde, less well-known, and less prosperous. It’s an agonizing, difficult book for anyone who both loves music and has illegally downloaded it.”
Interview with Dominic Knight from ABC Sydney (audio)
“Ruen explores the complicated morality of the downloading world – something which millions of Australians have indulged in, even though it’s effectively a form of theft – and picks apart some of the arguments people use to justify it. He looks at the past, through the heyday of the Napster download service and its stoush with Metallica, and takes a look towards an uncertain future.”
Interview with Mark Colvin on the Australian national affairs program PM (audio)
“Chris Ruen is himself a former prolific downloader who’s been converted. His book, FreeLoading, argues that there’s a powerful moral case against downloading.”
The Case Against Free: Elmo Keep writes about Freeloading for Junkee.com
“This is all rapidly approaching a crisis point where entire industries will function completely on free labor, or cease to exist altogether. And we as consumers are totally culpable. We’re the ones who are choosing to attribute no value to what people create.”
Freeloading excerpted in the Melbourne Review
“If careless, we all might become servomechanisms of our digital selves, unnervingly echoed by the popular sentiment, “You can’t fight technology.” The more we embrace the authenticity of our digital selves, our real lives naturally feel less important in comparison to the images and “friends” we find on our faithful, mirror-like screens.”
Don’t Call It Piracy: An excerpt for Arts Hub Australia
“By using the wrong word—the wrong symbol— as the keystone of any discourse, that discourse will eventually collapse from its own shoddy construction, leaving a messy pile of mortar that must be cleared before we can cross over to the gates to progress.”
The Freeloading Generation: Are we loving our music to death?
Piece I wrote for the preeminent Australian music webzine Faster Louder
Conversation with Chris Ruen – Illusion of More (Podcast)
Long and interesting talk with David Newhoff from the Illusion of More blog
Why Information Shouldn’t Be Free
A lengthy excerpt of Freeloading published in the prestigious Australian Financial Review.
FREELOADING mentioned by Billboard’s Glenn Peoples
“As some people have started reacting to the free culture espoused by Lawrence Lessig in the 2000s — books such as Free Ride by Robert Levine and Freeloading by Chris Ruen, and the Trichordist blog by David Lowery — Palmer sees free culture intertwined with a patronage system that’s enabled by technologies like social media and platforms like Kickstarter.”
FREELOADING reviewed on the website of MAGNET Magazine
“In Freeloading, Chris outlines the inherent tension between digital technologies and content in a very tight-yet-entertainingly storied set of three parts. The personal saga outlines the journalist’s intention to wade into the moral and financial dilemma.”
Chris Ruen’s Self-Interview for The Nervous Breakdown
“Freeloading: the perfect gift for that music-obsessed young person in your family that you’re sort of struggling to relate to these days.”
FREELOADING named a “Favorite Music Book” of 2012 by the Future of Music Coalition
“That simple insight eventually led Ruen to this book, which makes a compelling case for a revived debate that moves past old arguments about Metallica and RIAA lawsuits. Unlike some leading pro-IP writers, Ruen takes a moderate, pragmatic approach, favoring shorter copyright terms, and acknowledging the many flaws of SOPA.”
FREELOADING mentioned by The Future of Copyright
“According to Mr. Ruen, their mission was somewhat irrational and over-defensive, based upon the idea that any regulation of the Internet is an attack on the web and its “freedom”, so any proposed regulation of the online world would be undesirable.”
“Freeloading Is Killing Music” — A review from Copyright & Technology
“Ruen comes to this subject matter as a fan of indie rock who downloaded lots of music from file-sharing sites, then came to see the effect of illegal file-sharing on the livelihoods of his favorite artists and saw the error of his ways.”
“There needs to be a large, coordinated effort by bands big and small to tell their story–to sign a letter to fans explaining how devastating piracy is to their ability to make music for a living (or at all). “The voice of that community is clearly the most important,” says Chris Ruen, author of the recent book, Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Hunger for Free Content Starves Creativity. ‘Artists need to raise their voices.’”
FREELOADING reviewed by Copyhype’s Terry Hart
The “Decade of Dysfunction” culminates, for Ruen, at SOPA. He writes, “Years of haphazard debates, misunderstanding of the issues and demonization of rights holders had left a population of Internet users who were vulnerable to propaganda from a technology industry that was (in the form of search engines and social media) facilitating what felt like their lives.”
FREELOADING Excerpt on Copyhype: The Net Fail parts 1 and 2
“SOPA Mythbusting,” one might call it.
The Village Voice: Interview with Michael Alan Goldberg
“Music and Copyright in the Digital Era: David Byrne in conversation with Chris Ruen is the title of tonight’s hour-long, moderated talk; an event that brings Ruen back to the room where he spent much time writing Freeloading, his first book, over the past couple of years.”
Greenpointers: Interview with Jen G
“You may think that internet piracy is so 90s, but Greenpoint author Chris Ruen’s new book Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Hunger For Free Content Starves Creativity makes you think twice before you steal music online. I said it – stealing. As such, the book is a great conversation (and argument) starter, as it aims to establish the relationship between consumers and artists in an age of internet disconnect.”
Time Out New York: Top 5 Lectures lists NYPL event with David Byrne
“On Wednesday, music lovers can expect an earful when the former Talking Head converses with Chris Ruen, a journalist and the author of Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Hunger for Free Content Starves Creativity.”
Essay on Stereogum: Pandora, Spotify, Piracy and Getting Artists Paid
“The digital revolution has brought about a great many things. However, the obvious exploitation of artists — in knowing denial of their basic rights — remaining at such an industrial scale in 2012 is an embarrassment to that revolution.”
Ruen’s Terrible Idea: REDUX (pics)
On October 20th I read the near-entirety of Freeloading from 10 AM to 8PM at WORD Bookstore in Greenpoint. Guest readers included members of Talk Normal and Crystal Stilts, along with Todd Patrick, Frankie Rose, and luminaries from the NYC experimental theater scene.
A great discussion, with diverse perspectives on the challenges facing today’s musicians and how they can get paid.
Interview with Tobias Carroll from Vo.1 Brooklyn
“Chris Ruen’s Freeloading — out soon on O/R Books — is a smart look at digital distribution and culture. What makes Ruen’s approach particularly interesting is his willingness to engage with questions of morality, and his willingness to examine where current trends might lead.”
BACKGROUND
Interview with M3 Music Conference (Netherlands)
“Brooklyn’s Chris Ruen is one of the most compelling and forward thinking critics of our current download culture, or FreeLoading as he calls it…”
Radio appearance on Talk’s Cheap with Jason Sigal on WFMU
Two discussion segments on SOPA and Megaupload begin about two hours in. Interview occurred one week after the SOPA blackout.
“An Elegy for the Piracy Wars (On the Occasion of the SOPA/PIPA Blackout)”
Trying to place the 2012 blackout within a proper context.
freeloadingthebook.wordpress.com. January 18, 2012.
“No Sellouts Means More Selling-Out”
How music freeloading has increased reliance on corporate sponsorship.
The Big Money (Slate). June 6, 2010. (Original page on Big Money is deceased)
Toward a common ethic on piracy. The piece that started it all.
Tiny Mix Tapes. June 2009.
“Fuck Love, Let’s Make Dystopia”
Revisiting ‘The Myth of DIY’ and the tragic logic of FreeLoading.
Tiny Mix Tapes. December 2009.
REACTION
With file sharing eating their lunch and no new revenue model in sight, artists are exploring new – and old – ways to get paid.
Chicago Reader. January 2010.
“Free is Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Pay Artists?”
Popmatters. July 2009.
One reader’s meditation on Freeloading and addiction
“I suspect it’s way too late, but it’s reassuring to finally see some serious questions being asked by non-corporate music people about file-sharing.”
LETTERS
“I think the truth is that this is already over, for the most part.”
“‘Do It Together’ would be more apt wouldn’t it?”
“Fair enough. But what’s the solution?”
“There’s a lot more I could say, but you obviously already understand.”
“Niche performers never get enough to sustain more than a meager and temporary existence.”
“I’m a teenager – apparently a member of a hopelessly self-entitled and over-privileged generation…”
“People want to, or at least claim they want to, pay artists for music.”
“I even feel ambivalent about using the word ‘art.’”
“Thanks for your article on music downloading, whatever name you give it.”