Has the Music Industry Been Affected by the Internet The internet is now being used in many interesting and curious ways. The music industry, although, has been abused by free websites. They are offering information on how to get new music without permission from the artists. People go to free websites and download all the unlimited music they want for free. This is really hurting the artist themselves.
Abstract: This paper discusses the ethical and legal issues of online sharing of MP3 music files. The technology exists to effectively distributes music to consumers, and the recording industry is trying to stop this practice as they fear that they will lose revenue. Many artists, whose music is being shared, support the technology. By working together, on-line file-swapping companies and the recording industry could revolutionize the way music is distributed to consumers. Everyone who uses the Internet has heard of some way to swap MP3 files back and forth.
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.
Advantages and Disadvantages of MP3 Technology *Works Cited Not Included MP3s, a breakthrough in technology or are they just another bomb waiting to explode on us? Some say they are good while others argue that they are not just bad, but horrific to musicians that want to make it to the top. MP3's are used widely by teenagers on their home computer, usually illegally and are constantly being threatened by the producer of the music. Billions of dollars are being lost due to the Internet craze of the MP3 technology mainly because no one is buying the legal music from record stores anymore, its like a style gone dead. Now that the problem is out, Internet police are on the loose to find these illegal distributors of music and put them to a stop.
Many artists believe that people who are downloading their music are stealing from them and they are striving to stop it. On the other hand, many artists and music lovers are happy with the new technology of music downloading. I believe that there is a way to reach a happy medium in-between these two groups to solve this problem. With a few website modifications, along with some minor changes in the music world, we will be able to leave this problem behind us. Thanks to today’s technologies, music can be compacted into MP3s and sent all across the Internet.
The same incident happened with the “new and improved” VCR. After fighting some battles, it was made legal for consumers to record from their own home and uses it for personal matters. Again, this situation is similar, but with more strings attached. Napster was thought to be similar to the VCR problem, but with the piracy laws and the government still trying to find ways to regulate the Internet, it became a more difficult battle for Napster to fight. Recording artists were losing money in the sales of compact discs and they were blaming it on the rise of file sharing.
Several people also, however, admitted that they felt that the piracy of music online is unethical. These were people who also said that they download music regularly. Their response as to why they continue to compromise their integrity was based on the fact that they did not feel that the record labels or the individual artists themselves were actually being adversely affected. In their minds, their downloading and sharing of this music is only helping the music industry, especially up-and-coming bands who are trying to develop a name for themselves. Instead of handing out promo CD’s, they can simply upload their music onto the internet and circulate their music that way; a much more inexpensive and effective method.
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.
In 1998, a program that played MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 files called Winamp was offered for download on the Internet as a free music player. Soon, people all over the world were copying music files off of CDs and converting them to MP3 files, then making them available to others over the Internet. In 1999, music piracy off... ... middle of paper ... ...stry Association of America and other sensible people continue to fight against it, piracy will always be contained at least to a diminutive degree. Works Cited “Fewer Than 1 in 10 Teenagers Believe that Music Piracy is Morally Wrong.” The Barna Group, LTD. n.p. 26 April 2004.
Napster, an idea from the head of a teenager redefined the Internet and the music industry forever. The Napster website concept is simple: its creator hoped to design a "program that allows computer users to swap MP3s with one another directly (aka Peer to Peer File Sharing), without going through a middleman. Napster had achieved a tremendous level of success, but it once was a controversial service that spurred what is still one of the greatest Internet-related debates: Just because we can get the music we want without paying for it, should we?, although it is technically a file sharing program that has a central server. However, this simple idea has caused one of the biggest Internet revolutions in history, growing in popularity. It has also caused retaliation from the Recording Industry Association of America, which has unleashed its anger in the form of many lawsuits against Napster for copyright infringement.