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Some effects of piracy on music industry
The effects of the internet and digital downloading on the music industry
The effects of the internet and digital downloading on the music industry
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Downloading Music from the Internet
There are many ways to download music off the internet; some legal and some illegal. There are so many websites about downloading music, it can be confusing to people which ways are legal and which are not. Some sites and programs charge a monthly fee while others have consumers pay per song. Then there are others that advertise “Free Downloads” and falsely state that downloading free music is legal. There are many advantages and disadvantages to downloading music legally and illegally.
There are various ways that one can obtain and download music off the internet without having to worry that his/her favorite jams will be serving him/her jail time. According to about.com, the best places to buy legal music are iTunes music store, Emusic.com and Napster 2.0. Apple Computer recently created the iTunes music store that provides over a million songs from major labels that can be purchased for 99 cents each. In order to use this service, one must download the iTunes player onto either your Mac or PC. This “store” also allows the user to burn an unlimited amount of CD’s. Millions across the world own an iPod that can have these music files downloaded onto it as well. Another included perk to this “store” is called Artist Alerts that notifies the user via e-mail when a newly released CD from your favorite musician has been added and available to download. Emusic.com was one of the first sites to sell music online and offers unrestricted and un-copy-protected MP3 files. The price for the service begins with a free two week trial including 50 free downloads. If the user wants to continue the service he/she may continue to pay $9.99 a month for 40 downloads. This service allows one to sample the track before it is purchased/downloaded and one can also download entire CD’s. Napster 2.0 is unlike the old file-sharing Napster that had become recognized as the service that would give out downloads and lawsuits. This new Napster is an online music store that is owned by Roxio and can only be used if one downloads the Napster software. Napster 2.0 has established content agreements with the five major record labels and other independents. More than 500,000 tracks are offered and a 30 second clip for each song is offered before it is purchased. The cost is 99 cents per song or $...
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...ing CDs. Because of this, music sales have dropped 31% over the last 3 years. Some consumers feel as though the record industry has been charging too much for CDs and downloading music for free is a way of getting back at them. There are some people who think that charging fines is not the way to help this situation. They think that there should be an easy way for people to buy music on the internet so they can continue to make money,. Large fines may upset consumers and they may never spend a dollar in a record store again because they are upset. The only way to avoid being charged a lot of money is to buy CDs in record stores.
By downloading legal music, one has to pay money for songs that he/she downloads and illegal downloading lets people get free music. Each way to download has its advantages and disadvantages. If people choose to download music legally, they do not have to worry about being charged high fines. People who download illegal music do not have to worry about paying per song and like getting music for free. When one decides which way to download, he/she looks at the good and bad things about each and makes his/ her own judgment about it.
Napster is a virtual community, which consists of music news and chat-rooms, the main feature it offers is an easy way to download MP3's (music files). This controversial service has brought the lawsuit to Napster. Napster allows its subscribers to download the music files without charge. It is not however, from Napster that the subscribers get these files. It is from each other. The users share their hard drives so that other users can download any of their music files that they want.
Singers and songwriters need to make a living somehow. They know that downloading music is a way to get their voice heard, but they also know that it is significantly hurting the business. "When your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action," said RIAA president Cary Sherman (RIAA 1). There are a lot of people involved in the music scheme when it comes to who needs to get paid by the revenue. From the sale of one CD, singers get one small fraction of the cost, another fraction goes to song writers, musicians also get some of the profit along with retailers, engineers, technicians, warehouse working, and ever...
While many suggest that music piracy is destroying the music industry, others claim that it is actually helping. On average, people who pirate music “legitimately purchase 30 percent more music than non-P2P (Peer to peer) users.” This is what Betsy Issacson claims (Issacson). Most of this music is copied from friends and families that bought it from a music store. In 18-29 year olds, this is where they get about 30% of their music from.
In all, people should be prosecuted for downloading music illegally. Stealing is stealing and there is no other way to put it. Whether it's in a file or in your physical possession there is no difference between the two. People are losing their jobs and money due to the ignorance of people downloading illegal music files. The people know they are stealing and it should be stopped for smaller fees or shorter jail time. People need to be prosecuted for their
Before the 1990’s, if people want to listen to music, they just visit a music store and pick up a CD and then put it into a stereo equipment. However, the development of MP3 file format gradually changed the way people listen to music. This format lets everyone download music easily and it can be converted to CD as well. But, there is still a problem: searching MP3 files on the internet is maddening and people seldom can find the music they want. Therefore, the birth of Napster solved this problem, creating a virtual music community in which music fans could use the Web as a “swap meet” for music files. More importantly, Napster is easy to use and it’s free, which expands the range of audience in age. Bandwidth also contributed to Napster’s success. The greater the bandwidth, the faster the file can be transferred. So, Napster really changed the way people listen to music, discover music and interact with music.
According to the text A Gift of Fire, Napster “opened on the Web in 1999 as a service that allowed its users to copy songs in MP3 files from the hard disks of other users” (Baase, 2013, p. 192, Section 4.1.6 Sharing Music: The Napster Case). Napster was, however, “copying and distributing most of the songs they traded without authorization” (A Gift of Fire, Section 4.1.6 Sharing Music: The Napster Case). This unauthorized file sharing resulted in a lawsuit - “eighteen record companies sued for contributory infringement claiming that Napster users were blatantly infringing copyrights by digitally reproducing and distributing music without a license” (Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints and the Modern Media, 2011, p. 359).
The story really begins with Napster and its free software that allowed users to swap music across the Internet for free using peer-to-peer networks. While Shawn Fanning was attending Northeastern University in Boston, he wanted an easier method of finding music than by searching IRC or Lycos. John Fanning of Hull, Massachusetts, who is Shawn's uncle, struck an agreement which gave Shawn 30% control of the company, with the rest going to his uncle. Napster began to build an office and executive team in San Mateo, California, in September of 1999. Napster was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, although it was not fully peer-to-peer since it used central servers to maintain lists of connected systems and the files they provideddirectories, effectivelywhile actual transactions were conducted directly between machines. Although there were already media which facilitated the sharing of files across the Internet, such as IRC, Hotline, and USENET, Napster specialized exclusively in music in the form of MP3 files and presented a user-friendly interface. The result was a system whose popularity generated an enormous selection of music to download. Napster became the launching pad for the explosive growth of the MP3 format and the proliferation of unlicensed copyrights.
This paper aims to analyse problematic of illegal music downloading from the internet. Specifically than downloading, sharing audio, restrictions and government reactions against it. At the same time, I am trying to analyze the trends in music distribution and how did the industry react on it. Analysis of Record industry before the world wide web and after it. Reaction of artists and bands on the recent trends and how did the internet piracy helped to shape the legitimate music business of 20th century.
There are a lot of people who download music and movies without paying. The main reason that this is such a big issue is because piracy substitutes for a legitimate transaction; for example, someone who would have originally bought a DVD of the movie Young Guns but instead downloads it for free on The Pirate Bay. In this case, the person pirating the movie or song would never have bought it. This happens frequently if the “pirate” lives in a relatively poor country, like China, and is simply unable to afford to pay for the films and music he or she downloa...
Nowadays, it is extremely easy to download free music from the internet. All someone has to do is download some peer to peer file-sharing application such as Kazaa, Edonkey, Blubster, or Bearshare, and you have unlimited access to download just about anything that you please. But is downloading free music from one of these applications legal? I think that it is. This paper will look at both sides of the argument.
The first reason why downloading and uploading copyrighted materials from the Internet should be legal is that downloading copyrighted materials positively affects the economy. The European Commission Joint Research Center reported that the profits of music companies would be 2% lower if uploading and downloading copyrighted materials were banned. However, music companies are able to acquire more profits despite illegal downloading because many people tend to purchase CDs or DVDs after watching or listening to copyrighted materials for free. Moreover, the research showed that people who download music illegally spent more money to buy music than people who did not download illegally. In addition, research conducted by the Swiss government informed that one-third of Swiss people downloaded copyrighted materials from the Internet because personal use of copyrighted materials is legal in Switzerland. Even though there is a fact that many people can download copyrighted materials from the Internet legally in Switzerland, the amount of money that people spend to buy copyrighted materials is not f...
...uld emphasize the negative aspects of downloading music for free, research shows that the benefits will greatly conquer the drawbacks. By letting people download music for free, the artist will have a better chance to have his music out faster and have his music gain popularity quicker. The local bands can be heard by having free songs. Also, you’ll have your favorite song in the palm of your and. Now it’s up to the record labels and artist to not be greedy and let the music be free.
Moreover, hackers came up with new ways to remove the digital copyrights so the same as before one downloads music and distributes them around. The industry gets its revenue from selling this content, whether it’s online or in stores, this funds new projects and allows for better products in the future. The public should be aware of this, downloading the content for free, and not buying it will decrease revenue for the companies, stopping them from undertaking future projects. “Production companies should lower the price on their products, I can’t buy music for at least 20$ per album and DVDs for 30$, I only make 200$ per month,” said George Issa, a music fan who spends most of his nights downloading music from the internet, “when there is an album or movie that I really like, I try to buy it legally, I don’t think I am doing anything wrong, they are wrong making money off our backs,” he added.
Not only is downloading this media illegal, it is also morally wrong. It is our responsibility to know the difference between right and wrong - downloading this media is something that shouldn’t be done. The artists that create the CDs pay a lot of money to make the CDs for our pleasure, and in return they expect everyone to pay for their CDs (its how they make their money). In this respect, downloading illegal music through peer to peer networks is the equivalent to stealing a CD from an actual store.
As explained above, illegal downloading is a great problem affecting the entertainment industry and could soon be an even bigger problem for consumers. Downloading copyrighted material illegally is just as unlawful as stealing from a store or someone’s personal item. To prevent shutting down businesses and industries, internet pirates must be stopped and actively sought after. So if one is downloading material illegally take in to mind what harm it can do to and who is being hurt in the process. Free does not mean that it’s moral or fine; one must analyze and see the consequences of such actions before they continue—otherwise, it could be the end of something great because people were stealing and driving companies out of business, with no force stopping them.