On a personal level, I have witnessed the impoverishment of many critically acclaimed but marginally commercial artists. In particular, two dear friends: Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) and Vic Chestnutt. Both of these artists, despite growing global popularity, saw their incomes collapse in the last decade. There is no other explanation except for the fact that “fans” made the unethical choice to take their music without compensating these artists.

Shortly before Christmas 2009, Vic took his life. He was my neighbor, and I was there as they put him in the ambulance. On March 6th, 2010, Mark Linkous shot himself in the heart. Anybody who knew either of these musicians will tell you that the pair suffered from addiction and depression. They will also tell you their situation was worsened by their financial situation. Vic was deeply in debt to hospitals and, at the time, was publicly complaining about losing his home. Mark was living in abject squalor in his remote studio in the Smokey Mountains without adequate access to the mental health care he so desperately needed.

I present these two stories to you not because I’m pointing fingers or want to shame you. I just want to illustrate that “small” personal decisions have very real consequences, particularly when millions of people make the decision not to compensate artists they supposedly “love”. And it is up to us individually to examine the consequences of our actions. It is not up to governments or corporations to make us choose to behave ethically. We have to do that ourselves.

Lowery’s pointing out of these edge cases really grabs you. His other point here revolves around the relative cost of music. Breaking down the price point of how much it’d cost to buy every song in her collection legally (read up on her collection here), he notes that while it’d be a couple thousand dollars to pay the royalties for artists, if you break it down month-to-month, it’s really not all that much. Lowery asks pointedly, “Why do we value the network and hardware that delivers music but not the music itself?” While we don’t agree with every point he makes (he points the finger at Google for making it easy to find sites like MegaUpload), clearly he speaks honestly and touches on real issues that rarely get a voice from musicians. It’s a real argument delivered with honest consideration. (thanks Bryan DeVasher)