The Growing Problem of Music Piracy

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The Growing Problem of Music Piracy

At the turn of the millenium, the music industry has been faced with an unforeseen phenomenon that has affected its very foundation - mass scale music piracy. The decline of CD sales in the past three years have been blamed on the availability of songs that can be downloaded from Internet sites and service providers like Napster, KaZaA and Morpheus free of charge. Today the issue of intellectual copyright infringement in music has been taken more seriously than ever before, as large record labels and companies like Sony and EMI struggle to maintain healthy album sales in the face of online music piracy. In addition, music piracy affects more than just the corporate world - it affects the very artists who create music and receive no compensation for their efforts. In fact ?many high-profile and buzz artists, including Eminem, Oasis and most recently 50 Cent, have seen their upcoming albums undercut by file-sharing online before their scheduled releases, prompting record labels to move up street dates to avoid losing album sales.? (Grossberg) In light of this, are a few positive aspects in the face of such widespread negativity but music file sharing continues to be a controversial topic in the world of music and the arts in general.

Nevertheless, before analyzing the impact of music piracy on a mass scale, one must start from the beginning of the 1990?s when the music industry experienced a growth in CD sales. In fact, ?according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), album sales grew from US $24.1 billion to US $38.6 billion during the decade.?(Zentner) But this era was short-lived and as the nineties drew to a close, the amount of illegal file swapping exp...

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...story of File Sharing.? <http://www.sean.co.uk/a/musicjournalism/var/historyoffilesharing.shtm>, Consulted on November 19, 2004.

Puretracks.com (2004). ?Radiohead.? <http://www.puretracks.com/search2.aspx?t=0&args=radiohead>, Consulted on November 20, 2004.

RIAA (2004). ?RIAA Files News Lawsuits Against 750 Illegal File Sharers.? <http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/102804.asp>, Consulted on November 19, 2004.

VALDES, Robert. [2004]. Stuffo. ?How ?Making It? Works: Antigone Rising.? <http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/antigone-rising8.htm>, Consulted on November 20, 2004.

ZENTNER, Alejandro. Measuring the Effect of Online Music Piracy on Music Sales. Online at:

<http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:IFHl3cQVCsQJ:www.uni-kiel.de/ifw/konfer/network2004/zentner.pdf+measuring+the+effect+of+online+music+piracy&hl=en>, consulted on November 18, 2004.

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