The Debate Over Downloading Music for Free

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The Debate Over Downloading Music for Free

Downloading music for free is a major issue in the world today. Some people love it and some people hate it. Musicians feel they need to be paid for people listening to their music and the average downloader feels there is no harm in downloading a few songs. Are there positives aspects of downloading music for free for musicians? Are there negative aspects of downloading music for the average person? Downloading music at a first glance doesn’t seem so bad. People have the chance to hear a musician or band for the first time or people can find a song they heard, but haven’t been able to find the CD. Downloading music gives people an opportunity to hear new songs and discover new bands or musicians they like. It all sounds wonderful, right? Right, but there are many people who completely oppose downloading music. Mainly it is the musicians or bands who oppose downloading music. Just downloading music isn’t what upsets the musicians. It is downloading for free. They are taking measure to stop it too. For example, during the Grammies a Heineken commercial aired called “Piracy” and showed a guy downloading music to his MP3 player and then heading to the fridge for a beer, only to be confronted by an empty six pack, thanks to his roommate’s pilfering. The tagline: “Piracy is so wrong” (Atkinson 3). The musicians feel that they should be given royalties for all of their songs that are downloaded.

If you ask the average downloader they probably wouldn’t disagree with the way the musicians feel, but they would obviously rather get the music for free than buy the CD. So, is downloading music for free helping or hurting CD sales? According to www.riaa.com the musicians have a fair argument ...

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...harging only eighty-eight cents for a song (Green 64). Downloading music for free is illegal, but will be very hard to stop. What’s better than something for free? Some people will always love it and some people will always hate it. The musicians will always want their royalties, but people love free things. As of now the happy medium of charging a low fee for downloads is working quite nicely, but the illegal downloads will be very hard to stop.

Works Cited

Atkinson, Claire. “Grammies Take Hard-line Against Online Music Piracy.” Advertising Age. 9 Feb. 2004: 3. Academic Search Premiere. EBSCO Publishing. 3 April 2004.

Green, Heather. “Downloads: Next Generation.” Business Week. 16 Feb. 2004. Academic Search Premiere. EBSCO Publishing. 3 April 2004.

Recording Industry Association of America. 2003. 3 April 2004. http://www.riaa.com/issues/piracy/default.asp

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