Give It Away

Saw this by Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea. Makes me glad to have made the decision not to download the latest albums from Pearl Jam, RHCP, Tool, Jewel. These are albums I will fork out money and buy.

when i woke up this morning -- i was was confronted with the news that our record has been leaked to -- the internet -- it does not come out til may 9 but now it has leaked -- and not that i know alot about this kind of thing -- but i guess now it is possible to down load it for free if you want -- well -- that's not very nice -- if you down load it now off one of these file sharing sites -- you will be getting a pale imitation of the record -- it will be of the poor sound quality of the technique they used to -- get it on there -- and that will break my heart -- it will break john frusciante's heart -- it will break anthony kiedis's heart -- and it will break the heart of chad smith -- yes, we worked for a year and a half to make the epic record of our -- lives -- and it is sad to me for the business reasons of course -- i think we are selling something really cool and we put all we had -- into it, 28 songs, 2 hours of the best that we can offer -- and i think it is a fair deal for everyone -- and for people to just steal a poor sound quality version of it for free -- because some asshole stole it and put it on the internet -- is sad to me -- but, equitable business reasons aside -- the thing that really bums me out is -- we worked so hard, and so thoughtfully, all of us, for so long -- to make this record sound as warm and full from top to bottom -- as was possible -- we spent day and night for a year making sure every little sound was -- just right -- that they were all put together in the most beautiful way we could -- we did not leave a stone unturned in doing that work -- i can not put in words how much this record, stadium arcadium, means -- to us -- how sacred the sound of it is to us -- and how many sleepless nights and hardworking days we all had -- thinking about how to make it be the best sounding thing we could and now, for someone to take it and put it out there with this poor -- sound quality -- it is a painful pill for us to swallow -- let me tell you -- this bums all of us out -- and i know that, as sensitive as john frusciante is about sound -- the idea of anyone getting and hearing this thing that way -- will devastate him -- for people to not hear the work the way we meant it to be -- will really hurt him deep inside -- and all of us will hurt -- yes, it is stealing from us, and that is lame -- everyone has to live with their own conscience on that one -- let it be your guide -- but to take a version that has been defiled sound wise -- a version in which some idiot has taken our year and a half of soul-baring work and pissed all over it -- that will break our hearts -- sincerely, flea