The Clashing Roles of Music Piracy and Music Industry

Maybe you have downloaded a song from the Internet lately. And perhaps that song that you downloaded was by an artist that you had never heard before. Then you might have gotten their CD or gone to see them live. Maybe that artist supported downloading music. Say it was an artist that you had heard of by radio, TV, or another source; if it is that situation, the artist is already getting a lot of money. The Internet is a great way to get your music out to people that in other situations would not be able to hear you. Many artists need that. That's why music piracy should be legal

Without exposure, no one comes to see them live and no one buys CDs or other merchandise. Speaking as an artist who had music available on the Internet, I know from experience that many more people get to hear you than if you had no music available for download. My band didn't get signed to a label until someone heard us on the Internet and enjoyed it. I got a chance to talk with Matt Huffman, founder and owner of Dishwater Records. I asked him how many of the band that he has signed had he heard of through music piracy. He told me that over half of the bands on his label were found somehow through music piracy.

Who gets hurt by free downloads? Save a handful of super-successes like Celine Dion, none of the real musicians that are real people you would see walking without body guards. They only get helped. Janis Ian is an artist who strongly supports music piracy. She says that letting people download music for free actually makes money: "On the day I posed downloadable music, my merchandise sales tripled," Ian said in an article she wrote.

Despite what you may have been told, many musicians support music piracy. Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), and Bono (U2), just to name a few. Another artist that supports music piracy is James Kochlka. His motto on music piracy is "Music is culture, and you can't put a price on culture". I got the chance to talk with a musician whose music can be found and downloaded illegally; Jimmy Vela of the band Recover. I asked him what his views on music piracy was and his response was "I don't mind it, it's just a good way for people to hear new music".

The music industry is making way too big of a deal about this music piracy thing as well. The recording industry says downloading music from the Internet is ruining their business, destroying sales, and costing artists money. This is far from the truth. In 1999, the first year that Napster was running, record sales were up 11%. Then in the first quarter of 2000, record sales were up another 8% (Boycott 1).

Sales of blank CD-R discs have grown nearly 2 and a half times in the last two years. If just half the blank discs sold in 2001 were used to copy music, the number of burned CDs worldwide is about the same as the number of CDs sold at retail. CD-R s are great, you can back up data, music or non and let's not forget making copies of your CD s for your own personal use that is perfectly legal (Ian 1) So is making copies and giving them away for free to people. The exact same thing was thought when tape recorders came out.

And don't think that was the only time. They said that about DAT's, mini disks, music videos, and MTV. In actuality they have made things sell better. In a few years there will be some new thing that makes the music industry think that it's coming to an end and we will all have forgotten about music piracy.

Most of the downloads are people who want to try an artist out, or who can't find the music in print. And if a percentage of that 1.8 billion is because people are downloading a current hit by Britney Spears or In Sync, who's to say it really hurt their sales? Soft statistics are easily manipulated. How many of those people went out and bought an album that had been over-played at radio for months anyway, just because they downloaded a portion of it? Another point that the music industry argues is in a recent survey of music consumers, 23% said they are not buying more music because they are downloading or copying their music for free. Who did they interview? College kids with access to super fast Internet and not enough money to buy food everyday? There are so many people that buy CD s when they could download them just for the liner notes and maybe a video that is on the real CD. And why do people download music? Most download it to get a taste of new music or get a CD that is out of print or is very hard to find. Not to avoid paying $5 at the local used CD store, or taping it off the radio, but to hear music they can't find anywhere else. I don't know about you, but I can't afford to spend $15.99 to experiment. That's why listening booths (which labels fought against, too) are such a success (Ian 1). And you can't hear new music on the radio unless it is MTV approved. The only exception to that would be a college radio station.

I started writing this not knowing many things. The biggest is that the majority of the musicians are supportive of music piracy and it helps so many more musicians than it hinders. Music piracy will probably be a big deal for a long time. People are always trying to get something for nothing, the music industry will always be greedy and want to get all the money that it can, and there will be some artists supporting it and some not. Until there is a compromise or solution this battle will rage on.