I've been a gigging guitarist for over 15 years, and the debate about whether music piracy actually helps independent artists won't die. When my band released our last EP, we put it on Bandcamp for $5 but also saw it appear on a popular torrent site within a week. Oddly enough, that same month our Spotify streams tripled, and we got invited to play in a city we'd never been to—likely because someone discovered us through that free download. Still, I wonder if we'd have sold more records without the leak, or if the exposure genuinely outweighs the lost revenue. So, does music piracy really benefit independent musicians in the long run?