By Connor Small
Contributing Writer
A hot topic of discussion lately has been whether downloading music illegally is okay or whether it is detrimental to the music industry. According to a study done by the Pew Research Center in 2005, about 36 million Americans admitted to illegally downloading music from the Internet, and with today’s rapidly developing technology, I suspect that figure to be higher in 2011. But who is to blame here: the people who operate the hosting websites, or the users who download the music? While illegally downloading music may be considered socially acceptable by people of our generation, that does not make it right.
The availability of free music on the Internet is impressive, and there are many options at a user’s disposal: YouTube-MP3 converters, torrent websites such as the Pirate Bay, and P2P (peer-to-peer) databases such as FrostWire; the list goes on. Getting music for free is easy, even for someone who isn’t tech savvy. Think about it: if an individual could download all the music they wanted for free in the comfort of their own home, why would they ever buy music again? The illegal downloading of music seems to be commonplace for people of our generation.
As one University student put it, “It’s no big deal because everybody does it.” That does not matter, however, because it affects peoples’ lives. By downloading the new Jay-Z and Kanye West album illegally, you not only reduce the artists’ pay, but also the engineers, producers and a plethora of other individuals lose a piece of the pie as well.
Other people claim to have justified reasons for downloading music illegally.
“While it may be illegal, for the reasons I use it for, I can’t buy it off iTunes. I make beats and sample, so I can’t do that using iTunes because of copyrights,” one student said.
Even with a legitimate and productive use for the music, is it acceptable to steal music from the Internet?
This trend has drastically affected the music industry. Record sales are down, as are sales of concert tickets. So far, the top-selling album of 2011 (as of July 5), Adele’s “21,” has sold only 2,517,000 units. Compare that to just seven years ago when the number-one record of 2004, Usher’s “Confessions,” sold 7,978,594 copies. In 2010, worldwide concert ticket sales dropped over 12 percent from 2009.
To combat this, labels have come down hard on offenders. Lawsuits have been filed for over $150,000 per song, and there seems to be no restrictions as to who they will go after. In fact, the Recording Industry Association of America recently sued a 12 year-old girl for copying music from the Internet. Although these measures are extreme, this is the only defense mechanism labels have against music copying.
As someone who has worked in the music industry and has written and performed my own music, I understand how these sites affect artists. There is less money to spend on signing new artists and promoting and sustaining tours. We all love music, and it is an essential part of our culture. The music industry provides jobs to millions of people, so next time you decide to click on that torrent, think about the repercussions.