Illegal Downloading of Music on the Internet

Let’s flashback to the early years of childhood when artists would announce when their album would be released and us kids would get all excited and couldn’t wait to get into the store to buy it. We would save up all of our money for that day, beg our parents to drive us to the store, then would put the CD in our little CD players and listen to it on repeat. Nothing made us happier than buying that new CD from our favorite artists.
Now let’s flash forward back to present day when all that doesn’t happen anymore. Instead of saving of our money and begging our parents to take us to the store to buy a newly released album, we simply get on our computer, go to a website and download the album for free. It doesn’t matter what website it is, whether it is Limewire, Frostwire, or Pirate Bay, people will be happy with their free album. There are still some kids to this day who enjoy going to the store and buying and listening to an album the old-fashioned way but we have to wonder how bad things will get as more and more people are getting equipped with the Internet and the use of downloading music. While the internet might be making life easier for all, the growing use of downloading music on the Internet is growing into a detrimental and illegal problem.
Illegal downloading can also be known as piracy. Piracy is defined as stealing a piece of music in which the composer or recording artist did not give consent for. It is the stealing of music from people such as songwriters, musicians, record label employees, and everyone else who put hard work into it. There are some people who see no problem with downloading music from the Internet but it presents three main problems. The first problem is that the music will mostly likely not have g...

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...llegally is actually helping them. The fans who listen to the music are the ones whose opinions matter the most and the ones who shape the music. So when one downloads a song, they are making that song become more popular. Tom Durrant points out, “Without it, we wouldn’t have Spotify and a summer full of packed out arenas” (Durrant). These downloads, even though they may be illegal, are what is making these songs and artists so popular. It can also be argued that “illegal downloads boost legal downloads” (Rothman). Some people believe that others download music illegally for the songs they never would have spent money on. It can also be argued that if the music had not been there for illegal downloading, most people would not have even listened to that music at all. But the main problem in the matter is still that illegal downloading will cause more harm than good.