Tuesday, August 12, 2008

One of the big issues concerning the music industry is, of course, the revenue loss. In theory, if a person is able to download his or her favourite music off the Internet, that person would not need to purchase the CD at a local music store.

Organizations that support music sharing and downloading however have thrown a wrench into the statistics released by the music industry as they suggest some of these losses are due to a bad economy and fewer "new releases" hitting the market in some of those years. It is obvious that the music industry has to be losing some money due to Internet music file sharing, but finding the exact amount lost due to music downloading isn't so simple. One thing that is for certain however is that the loss affects the industry, the musicians, and even sound technicians, recording studios, and music stores.



What’s the big appeal of the downloaded songs?

**It’s not of a better quality ..

**It doesn't have any hidden extras..

**In fact it has less than a CD.

BUT yet more of us are turning to downloading..
**Is it simply because we cannot be bothered to walk into a shop and look for a CD?

I find that difficult to come to terms with, being as I find music shopping a pleasure and not a chore. Or is it simply because an mp3 is nothing? It just appears as certain numbers on your computer. So technically it can be put anywhere. There isn't a disc or a tape but a memory card which can be stored in a number of devices.

So why download????

I am an illegal downloader. I believe I am not helping the decline of the record industry. I roughly buy two albums a month and own a minidisc player which I download my mp3s onto. If I download an album I usually listen to it up to a month and then buy it if I so wish. I find nothing wrong with this. I believe without illegal downloading I wouldn't have found most of the artists I love and adore today. The real music fan will buy the album for a permanent record despite already having the mp3. Legal down loaders are not willing to do this as they have already paid for their music.



Sources:
www.dailymail.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_to_peer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube
http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4110436.html

Labels: Internet, music