R.E.M.’s Mike Mills On File Sharing

Dave Gil de Rubio of the Long Island Press caught up with R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and asked him what were his views on file sharing. “My feeling is that if you’re going after some rare track that you can’t find, or some rare version of a song that you’d like to hear, that’s fine,” Mills explained. “If you’re stealing a brand new CD because you’re too cheap to go out and pay for it, then I think that’s wrong. It’s not going to hurt me, but bands that are starting out, if you’re ripping off their CDs, how are they going to make any money and get better as a band?”