Music Piracy

In the 21^st century, at least 7 million people in Britain use illegal downloads, which is costing the economy billions of pounds and thousands of jobs. Therefore, if digital piracy is such a negative thing, why do people still do it?

Illegal downloading has taken the music industry by storm, with millions of people downloading songs and albums for free from websites such as Limewire, Youtube Converter and Flvto, rather than buying the artists music legally. The most common reason for this is because people no longer have to buy a full album when they only actually like one or two songs. As it is much easier, quicker and preferable to just download the few songs and save their money. Many people also feel as if the music industry may have lowered its standards and may not be as good as it used to be, therefore, people are not willing to waste their money on what is seen to be ‘average’ music.

The music industry has been persistent to blame the decreasing sales on music piracy when the reality is that, many people would prefer to spend their money somewhere else. For example, the money spent on the gaming industry went from £1.286bn to £2.56bn within 10 years. This shows that most people would rather choose to buy a game costing £40 that will last several weeks over a £10 CD with only two amazing tracks.

Although music piracy is against the law, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a negative thing. If you think about it, illegal downloading does nothing but increase an artist’s fame value. This results in making their name well known and eventually, touring across the world and gaining profit through merchandise. If the music industry see’s the new world of technology as a negative thing, why do artist use popular sites such as Youtube to promote their music? Many successful artists have contracts with Youtube in which the more views they get, the more profit they make.

On the other hand, many people view music piracy as being unfair on the artist and a cruel thing to do. Artists feel as if their hard work and time is disregarded and disrespected when people download their music for free. Not only is it breaking the law, but it also means that the artists are not receiving the full amount of money they ‘deserve’. This results in them feeling as if their fans are not true, because if they were, they would be prepared to buy the music. Other artists have claimed that it makes them seen ‘unsuccessful’ to their music company and will result in them not making another album.

Overall, although music piracy is against the law, I personally do not see a problem with it as it is easy and quick to do, and helps to increase the artist’s fame value at the same time, which will result in a positive outcome for the artist’s music career in the future. However, I do understand why people feel as if music piracy is wrong as it is unfair and unfortunate for artists who put in a lot of effort into creating their music.