Download or Down-No?
We live in a generation of everything having its cost,
but there’s that one thing that seems to become more and more price free and that’s
what they call Music Piracy also known as music piracy.
So the big
question is what exactly is music piracy? Well I can clear that up for you. Music
piracy is when music files are copied and shared in which the composer, recording
artist, or even the copyright-holding record company did not give permission/consent to own this piece
of music, this is then called copyright infringement. As we all know music
piracy is a criminal offence, so why is it that in the last decade it’s become
such a popular crime to commit? Is it because m any people don’t see it worthy
enough to be a criminal offense? Or is it because our generation is just
rebellious? Well almost a third of the UK internet users who stream or download music, TV and films did so at least once
illegally in the quarter to the end of January, with a gob smacking total of
400million files digitally pirated in the three-month period during 2012. I
know you’re thinking wow, that’s a lot for just a three month period, so you
can only imagine how much music files are downloaded illegally in just a year!
Let’s get our breath back from that whopping piece of information and get to
the root of the matter.
So do you think music piracy is wrong or right? Well I agree with music
piracy and let me tell you why. If were looking from an artist’s prospective,
free downloading of music is a good thing as your promoting and distributing
the artists music, it’s almost like advertising in a way and exposing their
music for free. Also free downloading can lead to later purchases from the
consumer, because someone may genuinely like the song and just purchase it for
“keep sake” as they call it, so downloading music promotes future purchases and
without it those purchases wouldn’t have been made. Music is by
far the most popular digital media pirated, accounting for 280m of the 386m
items of file sharing websites illegally accessed over the three-month period
in 2012. There are two main popular websites that seem to be gracing the scene
which are ‘YouTube converter’ – in which you copy the link from YouTube and
paste then download. Another example would be ‘aimini.net’ which provides very
good quality of music. The most important reason why most people download illegally is because
purchasing music can be expensive and as we know we are living in the recession
and the majority of the pirating generation are teens and college aged
students, whereby money is tight so it’s simply easier to download for free.
Some people may even argue that file sharing is destroying the music
industry but I’m here to tell you that it’s not, in no way shape or form. I’mma
let you in on a secret, artists get up to 25% of the sales they make from their
singles; meaning their record label gets up to 75% of the single sales - now
isn’t that a rip off? Even influential artists like Lady Gaga agree with file
sharing she says “Artists make up to 50 – 100 million on their tours, I don’t
really care about that, I make most of my money on my tours anyway”.
(huffingtonpost.com – 2011)Even the beautiful and talented Joss Stone said:“I think it's great. I love it. I
think it's brilliant, and I'll tell you why. Music should be shared. I believe
that this is how music turned into, like, some crazy business. Now, the only part
about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if
music is free, then there is no business. There is just music. So, I like it. I
think that we should share it. It's okay. If one person buys it, it's totally
cool. Burn it up. Share it with your friends. I don't care. I don't care how
you hear it, as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show and, like,
have a great time and listen to the live show, it's totally cool. I don't mind.
I'm happy that they hear it.”
However there
are many people out there including artists that strongly disagree with music
piracy, due to the facts that it its ilegal – stealing is morally incorrect and
stealing if defined as claiming anything without permission from the rightful
owner. Also some people may say it is an insult and harmful to the artist as
they’re putting their all into their music and not getting anything back from
the audience this then makes them feel betrayed or ‘double crossed’ as they
say, because some bands live off the money they make from the music sales so
it’s basically like were stealing from them, that’s one way to look at it.
Illegal file sharing negatively effects the music industry as they have to
invest in studio time, music videos, hair&make –up, styling etc. some argue
so where is their return? Do we live in the day and age whereby people now work
for free? It also effects the artists and the record label because they’re
missing out on BIG money and their royalties therefore this could make them
increase the prices of the singles making the loyal fans who genuinely buy the
music very much legit they have to pay more. Globally music piracy causes 12.5
billion economic losses every year and about 71,060 jobs are lost through this,
so from that perspective it seems pretty bad, and it is. Even Michael Jackson
the influential king of pop said “it is wrong to illegally download, but jail
isn’t the answer” So there you have it that’s music piracy summed up all in
one, the good and the bad – the bad and the good.
Now it’s your turn to decide
what you think?
Nice Article.
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