You people make me sick.

I’m talking about him, her and maybe even you. I’m talking about the so called “music fans” out there today who can’t even muster up 15 bucks to buy a CD. Instead, they rely on burning a copy of their friend’s disc or downloading the entire album and making a copy from there.

I’m talking about people like my roommate Tyler Fiesel. Tyler is a sophomore in pre-business. Since he acquired a computer two years ago, he has purchased one CD. After refusing to let him get his slimy bootlegging paws on my copy of “The Eminem Show” and laying on a thick layer of verbal abuse about the injustice he is doing to the music world by never buying records, he actually went to Sam Goody and bought the album.

But if you take a look in Tyler’s CD booklet, or in his car, you will find nothing but white-faced re-writable discs with the names of the contained artists scribbled sloppily with a sharpie marker.

“I’m just broke and it’s really easy to just download the stuff; any song you could ever want is right there at your fingertips,” Tyler tells me.

I do agree with my song-pirating roommate. Every song you could want is right at your fingertips and much like anything that is free, turning down free music can be tough.

But much like any vice or temptation, self control must be used in situations like these. Let me give you an example.

I’m a huge fan of both Megadeth and Everlast. When Everlast’s “Eat At Whitey’s” came out in 2000 and Megadeth’s “The World Needs a Hero” last year, I was living in the dorms of Iowa State. I had the super sonic speed of an Ethernet connection at my disposal, and I admit I was a frequent user of Napster.

Now before we go any further let me explain something to you. I live for the day that a new record comes out by one of my favorite artist. Even if it is the newest clunker by a washed-up band like Megadeth, when I awaken in the morning and peel the covers off, I have one thing on my mind, and that is getting to the record store to pick up the CD. I plan my entire week around that Tuesday release date.

With that said, it took some incredible will power the week prior to the releases of the aforementioned albums to not download and listen to the entire album. It would have completely ruined my Tuesday, leaving me with nothing to look forward to for the week except pizza day at food service.

I allowed myself to download a couple songs from each album to listen to, but no more. It was hard, but as an avid supporter of both of those artists, I felt it my duty to buy their albums and give them the money they deserved for creating a disc that holds 40 minutes of joy for me to listen to whenever I desire.

Some people, like Tyler, feel no compassion for the musicians behind this music, though. After all, they have enough money, right? What do your measly few dollars do?

“I don’t feel bad at all for the recording artists,” Tyler admits. “They make so much money either way that it doesn’t really matter.”

And I don’t want to just pick on Tyler; I have heard this expression countless times. But think about this. Say that you are Eminem and have just released a new album. I obviously have no idea what kind of cut Eminem gets from each record, but for sake of argument, let’s say he gets a dollar. Most of the information I have seen shows artists falling somewhere between one and two dollars per album, so we will take the short end of the stick.

Now let’s say that in Ames alone, 3,000 people make a copy of his record instead of buying it. The math is easy, that’s $3,000 that Eminem will never see. And personally, I would bet that more than 3,000 people in Ames own a copied version of the disc.

For Eminem this may not be that huge of a deal, but for bands that are trying to get going and make some money, it is a real big deal.

Would you like to lose $3,000? Imagine working your job at Hickory Park or wherever for a couple months and not getting paid for it. Would it piss you off a little? And folks, that’s just money from Ames, Iowa, we aren’t figuring in the rest of the world.

And if you don’t think that CD burning is taking its toll, think again. According to a survey conducted by the Recording Industry Association of America, the percentage of people who burn downloads to CD has risen from about 30% to 50% from 2000 to 2001. And that is just those who burn from downloads, not the people who copy from their friends.

Record labels say that the burning of CDs has resulted in a $4.2 billion dollar loss in revenues. I would take that with a grain of salt- the only thing more evil than you habitual burners are major record labels. It is still something to think about, though.

I also hear how records are too expensive today, and how people can’t afford them. Believe it or not, I don’t get paid a whole lot to sit here and write these thought-provoking articles for the masses at Iowa State. You would think it’s all money, hot tubs and champagne on ice here at the Daily, but it isn’t. I still manage to go out and buy CDs, though.

You know why? Because I am a real music fan. You don’t expect your landlord to provide your apartment for free, do you? You shouldn’t expect Pearl Jam to provide free music, either. This is their job, people, this is how they make money.

Does this make me a better person that you? Am I a better music fan than you just because I buy my records? Yes — I believe it does. Buy records, support music and most of all, quit expecting to get your music free.

Trevor Fisher is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Knoxville. He only owns one burnt record and doesn’t listen to it.