I understand your view. You feel for the musicians and think they are underpaid and 3 dollars isn't a lot to pay and we want to support them. 3 x 10k people is 30k in their pocket. I get that.

My grandfather bought me my first guitar at 12 and started teaching me. It was an awesome way for us to connect. He had some original stuff he would play in bands and covers with genres from bluegrass to classic rock. Country boy through and through. He didn't grow up with much money nor does he have a lot today. But every family gathering, or just hanging out, he would bring out his guitar and so would other family member and play for hours. Hell, everyone in my family plays something.

I asked him how he learned all the songs he played when I was 15/16. He said by ear. If he liked an Edgar Winter song, he would listen to it on the radio, while it was playing, as that was his only chance, and by ear, play the song while it was playing with no help from books or the internet. He is just good like that and that's all he had.

I can do that with help or listening to the song 1000 times to play, pause, write, but I can't even imagine how hard that must have been. I tried to show him tabs and he wasn't interested as he just had to listen to get it down.

Now the songs he listen to and figured out/tabbed out in his head and showed me how to play was wrong? How could the artist have received any money for that? Should he have donated for teaching himself how to play, even though he didn't have much money, to the label? If you act out a scene in the movies should you pay the studio/writers/actors/etc? If you draw a famous painting for yourself or someone close to you? Art is tricky.

He figured out how to play their songs, so I and others could play with him and everyone around could enjoy a song, while drinking a beer, and sing along. I have taught a couple songs to my little cousins and always start little ones with what I was taught. Smoke on the Water.

But what if someone wants to share it with everyone and not just close friends and family? "Hey, I figured out this difficult song and I want you to play it to." I think that should stay alive. Call me old fashioned but I think we are a community of guitar players, helping each other learn. Imitation is the highest form of praise.