All New CommentMILK Version 1.0Do Cows Dream Of Free Music Downloads?
Want to Learn How to Build a Business Not Just a Blog.. for FREE? CLICK HERE Now to Find Out How!
Each of us is a fan of music, but the way in which we, as consumers, get our music is constantly changing. From 78s, 45s and 33s to cassettes, CDs and beyond, our love for music hasn’t changed, but the format we listen to it on has.
With the advent of music downloads, P2P filesharing and digital music, consumers are forced to make ethical choices based on how they get their music. So, be honest now, are you a clean music fan or do you ever use filesharing services like Limewire or Ares? As the cliché goes: You wouldn’t steal a CD, so why would you do it online?
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is forever on the rampage against people who indulge in filesharing and illegal music downloads. Jammie Thomas, the world’s most infamous and dumbest advocate of filesharing, was sued for $220,000 by the RIAA for using the filesharing service Kazaa. The landmark ruling last year sent ripples through the filesharing community.
CD sales are declining. While the record industry would like for legal music downloads to pick up the slack, this has not been the case thus far.
According to IFPI figures released recently, the growth of the digital-music industry slowed in 2007, increasing just 40% after doubling in 2006. According to IFPI CEO John Kennedy, for every one legal music download bought, 20 more are procured illegally.
The RIAA has consistently targeted American students for filesharing violations. Pre-litigation letters are sent out to universities based on the IP address of suspected filesharers.
The letters are then passed onto the students, who are given a choice: pay an out-of-court settlement of several thousand dollars or be sued and, more often than not, lose.
Illegal music downloads cannot be stopped; filesharing is a part of modern life. Technically, it is theft, but the music industry was so late in dealing with it that it is now an entity that is out of control. Furthermore, how many of those people standing against filesharing have, at one time, copied casettes or burned CDs?
Targeting students and suing people for hundreds of thousands of dollars will not solve the problem. The vast majority of people who use filesharing programs do not do so for profit, but for personal use.
When Radiohead released In Rainbows in October last year, it was a slap in the face to the music industry. The band asked fans to choose what they wanted to pay for a digital download of the album, thus underlining the fact that music is changing. However, when the CD was released at the turn of the New Year and went to the top of the album charts in the US and the UK, it proved that people do still want CDs and that, perhaps, record labels still have a role to play. There must be a middle ground.
The music industry is at a loss now. At least one positive step is the news that Last.FM will launch a service allowing users to stream the entire library of tracks from the world’s four biggest record labels. Users will be able to stream tracks for free up to three times before having to pay for them.
There was further hope with the news that QTrax was to relaunch and offer legal, free music downloads with the support of the “the big four” record labels. Sadly, the launch has been all but scuppered as three of the four have come forward to deny any involvement with QTrax. The relaunch looks set to fall flat on its face.
What is needed for the music industry to survive are not attempts to eradicate filesharing, but improved ways of capitalizing on changing consumer trends.
I’d like to open this up to the barn here because it makes for a healthy debate.
Is filesharing morally wrong and what, if anything, should be done about it?
Angel is a decent sort of bloke who took a hiatus from his pro-blogging dream to write for music-download blogs like officilares.com and filesharing blogs like iownmymusic.org.
Did You Download Your FREE Copy of "How to Build a Business NOT Just a Blog" Yet? Click Here Now to Get Your Copy!
That`s a toughie. Let me think about it and I`ll get back to you with a comment.
File sharing will be around forever. It has been around ever since people have been able to make two computers talk to each other and it isn’t going anywhere.
I personally don’t like things like Napster (though I did before it became mainstream and the mass population ruined it), iTunes etc. If i am paying money for a song, why can I only get the song at 128k quality or less??
If I am paying for it at least let me get the 320k (roughly cd quality) of the song and I would be perhaps WAY more inclined to use such online services.
I received an iTunes gift card December of 2006 and I still have a balance left on it because I don’t like the 128k quality nor do I like the fact its encoded in an encrypted MP3 (AAC/mp4) sort of method.
=-)
Do they make Ares for a Mac?
http://www.thinklikeansob.com/2008/01/30/so-you-want-to-blog-on-johncow-here-is-how-you-can/
File sharing is like borrowing a cd from a friend and never returning it….I’ve lost many cds that way.
Is it stealing? Yes. But, in this generation I’m inclined to think that most don’t consult their conscience before they click download….we figure nobody sees it anyway. In most cases of theft it’s clear - It’s mine, I paid for it, you took it from me and didn’t pay - that’s stealing. In filesharing…who knows if someone paid for it- who actually knows all the people who they’re exchanging music with? The logic behind it all is someone bought it and they’re allowing me to check it out. Should you pay for it? Yes. But will you pay for it is the bigger issue and really a lot of this stuff that comes out there are 3 good songs out of 13. So there’s another issue the RIAA should look into- the quality of their product. I don’t mind paying for a quality product.
There is also an increasingly amount of music search engines popping up on the net: Absolutely Free MP3 Downloads being one of them. It isnt just p2p it is people hosting music on the net inside open ftps that can be grabbed.
Now just imagine trying to track down ALL open FTP’s with music sitting in them. It is damn near impossible.