Tame Impala is fine with fans illegally downloading

Kevin Parker from the band Tame Impala.

Kevin Parker, frontman of Australian rock band Tame Impala, said he's ok with fans illegally downloading his music because everyone does it.

"I used to download music illegally, everyone has. Nobody is innocent," he told BBC Radio.

"If someone says 'I love your album but I downloaded it for free' then good! I don't want his 20 bucks."

What is most important to Parker as an artist, he said, is experiencing the music, believing illegal downloading doesn't the make the music any less "profound".

"There are some CDs I saved up for months to buy when I was doing a paper round, I'd literally spent two months saving up to buy a CD," he said.

"But then later in life my friend would burn me a CD that he'd downloaded illegally and it was just as much of a powerful experience, even though the sound quality was kind of crappy.

"For me that shows that it's not really how much you pay for it or even whether or not it's physical, it can still have an effect on you."

Yet Parker wasn't sure where his views would leave musicians or the music industry financially.

"I'm not sure what that says about artists making money in the future," he said.

"Obviously artists need to make money but I also believe if you do something good the wealth will find you some way."

- AAP