Down with Downloading

“Singers and bands are the public face of the music industry, but creating, recording and promoting a song takes a large team of people. As record companies have seen their profits decrease, they have cut positions they are no longer able to afford” (Amy Adkins). Since the record companies profit decrease, they cut positions they can’t afford anymore. “The RIAA reveals that more than 71,000 jobs have been lost as a result of illegally downloading music” (Amy Adkins). Music was very successful back in the past but now is being loss by music piracy.

The New Technology of Music With the advancement of computer-based technology, music is being accessed and created in ways that were not seen only a few years ago. Whole catalogs of music are available on the Internet, some for a fee but most are free. Artists can create studio quality recordings at home with the help of digital technology and upload those songs to the Internet. As to be expected the recording industry has a severe distain for this advancement of musical technology simply for fear of it disturbing the companies year end bottom line. As much as the record business would like to have the public believe that computer-based music technology would forever ruin music, quit the opposite is true.

But still quite a few well known artist like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Taylor Swift, Johnny Marr and many others who are against Spotify, stating that it’s paying pennys for artist and that they are giving up their music for free, and staying with iTunes rather than Spotify. iTunes, in my opinion, is good for short term income, as when people buy a song they can listen to it as many times as they want and artist don’t get any more income from that song after someone have bought it, where as if an artist have their songs on Spotify even after 20 years

So, why should hard working people who want to enjoy the harmonies of their favorite bands have to trek to a store like “Best Buy” and purchase the dingy compact discs when they could get the same content for free and from the comfort of their home? Beside it being illegal, there isn’t a strong answer. But shouldn’t the musicians, producers, actors, and everyone involved in the production, distribution, and exhibition of this content be paid for their hard work? Yes, they absolutely should, and they are. Bands are able to reach a larger audience through illegal downloads which helps the media conglomerates in the long run.

Recording artists were losing money in the sales of compact discs and they were blaming it on the rise of file sharing. Although the radio does entertain the public with its free music, they do have to pay the fees to play the music. They make their money but advertisements and sponsors. Napster used the excuse that people record off the radio for free, but they cannot burn the music they hear. What Napster did not understand was that the music is offered free because the radio stations do pay for it, and they have the rights to issue the music at the level of their pleasure.

With a growing audience, bands can now book more shows to perform. The journalist also emphasizes, “We’ve had people admit to us before that they were given a burned CD of our record from a friend. They’d go on to say that once they heard the music, they bou... ... middle of paper ... ...ople end up hearing and liking the different music that they hear through the sites” (Illegal Music Downloads Not Hurting Music Industry, Study Claims 1). The artist whose music is being downloaded is being helped by the illegal sites. The increasing audience of the musicians Some people may say that musicians are losing too much money and that it should be prohibited.

This is why many companies have fallen in the industry. They simply could not make a profit out of having music being streamed compared to it being sold individually. A long-term profit has not been sustainable for most music-streaming companies. Music streaming has been around for over a decade. Companies such as Rhapsody, Napster, MOG, and We7 have tested different business models.

They think that there should be an easy way for people to buy music on the internet so they can continue to make money,. Large fines may upset consumers and they may never spend a dollar in a record store again because they are upset. The only way to avoid being charged a lot of money is to buy CDs in record stores. By downloading legal music, one has to pay money for songs that he/she downloads and illegal downloading lets people get free music. Each way to download has its advantages and disadvantages.

Many claim the labels in the past forced them to buy rubbish, but thanks to the Internet, people can now buy what they need. Page 2 Buyers that have CD collections can pick up a couple of their favorites, look at the track listing to realize they do not like every song on it. However, they are no longer limited to in options to buy music, making single tracks win. Although record sales have dropped, the labels still market their products the same. Units are calculated combining singles and albums.

When Napster first came out, millions of internet users worldwide were illegally downloading and distributing copyrighted music, videos, images, and software for free. After being vilified by the entertainment industry, which claims that Napster and any similar programs could make piracy of almost any digital work unstoppable, and many court battles, Napster was ordered by court to be shutdown in 2000. The technology has been praised as a revolutionary development for the Internet—unaware of the problems that would arise from such practices. However, the termination of Napster was not enough, months later, dozens of new, like programs were being developed and used. And since Napster, not much has been done to stop these latest downloading programs.