The biggest topic of discussion in the music industry today is illegal music downloading. The vast majorities have done it in the past or still do it. Many people go way overboard with it while some only do it here and there. Many people have their own opinions on the subject, and I will tell you why it is wrong.
The argument that most people come up with against illegal downloading is that it is stealing. I absolutely agree with this, it most definitely is stealing. Think about it, if you came out with your own product and want to make money off of it and people just kept stealing it, would you be mad? I know I would.
When you buy an album you are supporting the artist. This is absolutely true, most artists are not Lil Wayne, and they live off the profits from record sales. Support your favorite artists; they supply you with music you enjoy. Regardless of how much money they have, you should still buy their album. They put work into making the music; the least you could do is shell out 10 bucks on iTunes and buy the album.
Some people cannot afford to buy the music they want, this is true, but who says you need to buy 10 albums a week? The music is not going anywhere, save up for the albums you want. If need be there are several pieces of software that allow you to pay a subscription and you can download all you want. These subscriptions fees really are not that expensive, put a little effort into researching and you can definitely find ways to get the music you want legally.
I think a good way of thinking about it is this: regardless of how much money some artists have, they perfected their art and are making good money out of it. Perfecting the art can mean several things: maybe a band perfected their own sound and deserve to get paid, or maybe they perfected their art to appeal to the masses. Like it or not it works for them and they are becoming rich off of it, but they did it their own way and we do not have the right to steal their product from them.
Some artists are telling us to go ahead and download illegally; they would rather have it that way. Then what is wrong with it? Well if these artists really meant this then why did they sign big contracts in the first place, when all they wanted was to give it to us for free? That is a nice ploy to get more listeners. Think about it, illegal music downloading is the biggest problem in the music industry and everyone is talking about it. These artists do not lose listeners because of this comment, they only gain listeners. It sounds good, it sounds like they truly care about their fans, which might be true. In the end if that was the case then they would be handing their product out and not putting it on shelves in stores and putting it on iTunes.
This is a big problem, how would you resolve it? Well, one way I know that will not work is fining kids and adults outrageous amounts of money that they will not be able to pay off in their lifetime. Nice scare tactic, but that definitely didn't work. I would be going after the software and websites allowing this to happen, I would be shutting these down at a fast rate. We have seen a little bit of this in Limewire and Napster, but not enough to really have an effect. I really like the steps they are using currently. They give warnings out, and if that does not work, they eventually get the ISP (internet service provider) to cut off their internet and not allow them to access the internet. I do not know if you get put on a blacklist or what, but this is what happens.
This has led to many problems with ISPs though; this causes the ISP to lose business. You cannot really expect them to do this. This is where the music industry and ISP come up with an agreement, or something where the ISP gets so much money, therefore they do not lose money from cutting internet off and it helps to stop illegal downloading. Maybe this is not even an option, but it is an idea. These are just a few arguments against illegal music downloading and there are several more out there. This problem will be very difficult to solve and will probably never completely disappear and that is a big shame.
