Essay On Music Piracy

990 Words2 Pages

People have been finding alternative ways to access their music since technology evolved, whether it was recording songs off the radio onto a cassette tape or borrowing your friend’s CD in order to ‘burn’ it, No one played by the rules, legally. This piece will discuss illegally downloading music and the political theories and concepts it represents. What are the social norms and attitudes that drive this behaviour? and what is the solution, if there is one? Since early in the 1990's, software publishers have been concerned about their losses from software piracy. The music recording industry now faces a much larger threat than the software industry. Its very existence is in question as music is extensively pirated through internet downloads and copying CD's. The total cost of pirating music is estimated at $12.5 billion annually, of which $5 billion is a direct cost to the recording industry. The recording industry has experienced dropping profits and has lowered employment because of the effects of music piracy (Blyth, 2008). Many argue that as a result of music piracy, the structure of the industry must change and the era of both big record labels and superstar bands is ending (Dvorak, 2003). Nevertheless, many people, especially college students, do not seem to regard music piracy as unethical. Understanding consumer attitudes may be an important step in developing a solution to the economic problem of music piracy. This study develops a model based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) to promote further understanding of attitudes toward music piracy and how those attitudes influence music piracy behavior. Music piracy is a socially accepted illegal practice. Understanding attitudes toward music piracy ... ... middle of paper ... ...gital download on the 14th of October 2007 (Mayfield, 2008). In Rainbows was unique from previous digital releases as it was made available to consumers on a pay-what-you-want basis from the website www.inrainbows.com. After choosing In Rainbowsfor download customers were directed to a ‘checkout’ page on the website where they were asked to specify how much money they intended to pay for the album. Essentially the customer could pay whatever they preferred and had the option of downloading the album for free. The digital version of the album was followed by a physical release to worldwide audiences via XL Recordings on December 31st. The physical release sold for US$13.98 and was housed in a cruciform box containing stickers, which was intended to provide fans with the option of creating their own packaging by re-using an old plastic jewel case (Music Week, 2007).

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