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Negative effects of piracy on the music industry
How technology impacts the music industry
How technology impacts the music industry
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Recommended: Negative effects of piracy on the music industry
Over time the form in which we listen to our music has drastically evolved. Going from vinyl records, to tapes, to CDs, to mp3 downloads, and most recently instant streaming. Although technology becoming more advanced has helped our society to grow, the music industry has found it difficult to grow and advance with the change while still being profitable. Starting with tapes people would share their music, making mixed tapes for their friends or family. This continued when artists started putting their albums onto CD’s. It was easy for anyone to get a great new album for free as long as they had one copy of the album. This is called pirating music, it is violating an artist's rights which are secured by a copyright (the free dictionary). Pirating
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...
Along with the development of a file format (MP3) to store digital audio recordings, came one of the new millennium’s most continuous debates – peer-to-peer piracy – file sharing. Internet companies such as Napster and Grokster became involved in notable legal cases in regards to copyright laws in cyberspace. These two cases are similar in nature, yet decidedly different. In order to understand the differences and similarities, one should have an understanding of each case as well as the court’s ruling.
What trends in networking in the 1990’s and early 2000’s drove the popularity of Napster? What other technologies contributed to Napster’s success?
Music Copyright is a very important aspect of the music industry. The Copyright law was established to preserve the creativity and rights of authors, composers, performers of expression. Copyright is the law that protects the property rights of the creator of an original work in a fixed tangible medium. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright) A fixed tangible medium is something substantial like copying lyrics on paper or putting a song on tape or CD. Copyright can be seen every where in the music industry. Many music artist of our culture today have been involved in copyright issues. Recently, on MTV news it was stated that, "As the music industry becomes increasingly concerned about protecting the integrity of artists copyrights in the age of MP3. Prince has now filed a motion in New York federal court aimed at shutting down several websites offering free downloads of the Artist's songs." (http://www.mtv.com…19990304/prince.jhtml) In addition, in recent music news, "Nine Inch Nails lead man Trent Reznor copyright infringement suit was dismissed. Another artist claimed that the Reznor had stolen material for his last album." (http://www.mtv.com…19991202/nine_inch_nails.jhtml) The copyright law has become an important legal aspect to know our music generation.
Is important for anyone who has created any intellectual property to protect it. In the music industry, in order for someone to protect their work, they must obtain a copyright. Music has been around before anyone could obtain a copyright and when the invention of the computer came along it made it easier for someone to steal another artist's intellectual property with the help of the internet. This paper will cover what events have taken a big role in copyright protection for artist, the consequences if someone was to break the rules of a copyright which is called copyright infringement, and how will a copyright hold in the future. Were copyrights enacted without the thought of life changing technology, and how can some music companies surpass copyright infringement and make a profit from the artist? Can a copyright really make that much of a difference in the world we know today?
Back in the early 1980’s, record labels controlled what people could hear through airplay, record distribution and manufacturing, and selective promotion of music based on their judgement of their audience. An artist’s only feasible option was to go through this system. To obtain music of high quality, people had to buy vinyl singles or albums or tape, and later, only CDs. There was no practical way to listen to music before buying it without listening to or taping off the radio. Music was very restricted by several different record companies.
There are six key new market disruptions concerning the digital distribution of music: the creation of a new and broad customer base, the possibility of an annuity versus a per-unit revenue model, the gatekeeper advantage for a record company having proprietary access to a new digital distribution infrastructure, understanding of a technology that could be applied to other digital content, need for balance between physical and digital distribution strategies, the strategy the incumbent should adopt with respect to the evolving war over digital distribution standards. Was there a disruption or an evolution?
In 1999, a new file sharing service was introduced. This was called Napster. A peer to peer file sharing service where people could go on and download any song or album they wanted for free. That started a revolution; the download revolution. It has an effect on more than what most people think. It affects the record companies, the record stores, and the recording artists themselves. People need to not do it as much if they want to continue to have new music in their life.
The movie industry is a booming market during this century. 72/100 of americans go to the movies each year and there are millions of dollars made only on the price of a movie ticket alone. Pirating movies is a common action in the united states and around the world everyday but does this actually have an effect on the movie industry and profits? To answer this question, one must look at three aspects, the industries market, how easy it is to pirate movies and the laws against piracy. With these three aspects, the effect of pirating movies should become clear. Could a simple download have this big of an affect on an industry that makes millions a year in profits?
The problem is that copyright law hasn’t caught up with the way the music industry has been. The music business has never been completely united on any industry change, and digital platforms and streaming services are no exception. There is a new generation of artists who are not being treated or compensated fairly. It’s imperative for companies that generate enormous revenues to support musicians and artists who have made the platform what it is today. Few industries understand the need to evolve more than music.
The music industry started in the mid 18th century with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Through the decades there has been a great increase in this industry; however, the revenues for this industry have declined by half in the last 10 years. This has been caused by music piracy, which “is the copying and distributing of copies of a piece of music for which the composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company did not give consent” . After 1980’s, when the Internet was released to public, people started to develop programs and websites in which they could share music, videos, and information with...
... middle of paper ... ... I can see that the artists of the songs would want profit for something that they created and would not want anyone to steal something that is theirs. Being able to download music will provide people with a way to enjoy music without purchasing a CD.
For example Beyonce’s album Lemonade was “2016’s third biggest album” (Billboard) and it was only available on itunes. Artist are making it available only on certain places because, although they love making music it is not fair to them when they are not making the money they deserve to be making. Musician Joe Elliott gives more of an explanation of how he feels when someone is stealing his songs, “somebody taking our music for free is no different than walking out of someone's house with their tv set” (Ian) these artist are making music to entertain people all over the world but the listeners are not giving anything in return by stealing their music. As this continues to happen, people still steal, no seems to care this could hurt the artist career. Jans Ian explains, “that the industry (and its artists) are being harmed by free downloading” , this could and is hurting some artist because they are not making the money they are suppose to
Costs in manufacturing and distributing CD's and tapes is expensive that is why people are now sharing the streaming music online the only thing which protects artist is a copyright and to have copyright is the safest thing for
In today’s technological age and consumer-driven economy, there is no doubt that media piracy and file sharing are in demand and makes a big business. Not only the so called “bootlegged” materials cost less, but most of it also managed to completely imitate the quality of the original materials. It is much easier to people to download movies or music online or buy bootlegged DVDs for 5 dollars than to watch the movie in theaters or pay for the whole CD when there is only one song that the person likes. People know about the possible consequences of these actions, but they do not have a choice especially in these times of economy recession, plus everyone nowadays is doing it, so it would not be considered such a big deal at all if they illegally download or purchase copyright materials. On the other hand if everyone is doing it, why there are still some people getting caught? Not that they should not be punished, but being put into jail and paying a fine that is ridiculously impossible to pay are just practically harsh. Maybe if those people are business tycoons of counterfeit materials, but the fact that most of those people getting caught are just ordinary people trying to be practical and doing what the rest of the world is doing which is doing these “illegal” downloading or purchasing bootlegged movies and music. The government and the entertainment industries are using ordinary people as scapegoats and have been doing draconian methods in moms, children and maybe even old people by suing them for downloading or sharing pirated materials for free, because of the fact that they are having a hard time pursuing the big time “master minds,” who are making a profit out of someone else’s work.