Lightbulb to Music Artists

I was on twitter browsing and I saw so many links to download people's music for free. That made me think... "Why are you giving your music away for free that you worked so hard on?" It doesn't make sense or cents people. Now, I know you gotta build your fan base and get people to know who you are and that's fine and dandy but at the end of the day are you only making music to give away for free? I think a lot of people need to examine their approach with their music. In most cases, you had to pay for studio time, you had to pay for some album cover artwork, and you probably had to buy a beat or two along the way. So you spent your time, effort, and hard earned money on your project only to turn around and give it away for free huh? Again, I understand the notion of gaining notoriety and building your fan base up but I think its time for artists to start valuing themselves and what they do.

You may take my advice or you may not take it but one thing I know is that my album HeartBeat won't be free. I value my time and effort that I put in. I won't charge an arm and a leg but I feel like people should pay me for my work because I'm worth that. How about you???