Alanna Lawrence
With today’s technology
growing and expanding, it seems as though everything is at the touch of your
fingertips. One of the popular trends
that the music industry seems to be facing is the usage of streaming and
downloading illegal music. It has become evident that just about every
individual has participated in a form of illegal downloading or streaming,
whether it’s transferring files, converting videos to MP3 , or just simply “
burning a free copy” for a friend. It has now become the new craze to be
involved as a Pandora or Spotify user. Because of this we easily fall into the
category of an illegal user. But has it crossed your mind that we are breaking
a law and committing a crime? Or have you ever wondered what really happens
when you download illegal music? Do you think this affects music artists’ and sales?
Well with this
trend being an ongoing battle within the industry it has become harder and
harder to stop. It has developed and evolved so much in time it’s starting to
get out of control. Music piracy has become one of the most popular issues
going on within the music industry and the concept of downloading and streaming
music has spread like wildfire. In this blog it will focus on some positive and
negative aspects of music piracy towards the music industry.
According to the
article “ Rethinking the Music Industry” , it has been said that apart from the
illegal aspect of file sharing it can be a form of promotion for the new upcoming artists
and the old. With music piracy going hand in hand with the expansion of the
Internet it supports the idea that this aspect can benefit the music
industry. “ Though the focus has been on file sharing, the real story is how the internet has empowered
audiences, allowing them to transcend distance and reach large audiences
themselves,….enabling new forms of creative engagement, and lessening the
social distance between them and media producers.” Even though it may be looked upon as an illegal
act, these users are promoting the works of artists’ by spreading their music and
information through blogs and other social media websites. This can be taken as
a positive act because it helps get certain music out there and online, circulating
to others worldwide.
In addition to music piracy being
a promotion to artists, the usage of illegal downloading has started to decrease
over the years. In the article “Music Industry Sales Rise, and
Digital Revenue Gets the Credit” from New
York Times reflects back on the idea of music piracy finally dying
out. It was said that for the first time
since 1999 there was an increase of 0.3 percent and total revenue of $16.5
billion dollars. Edgar Berger, chief executive of the international arm of Sony
Music Entertainment, states “At the beginning of the digital revolution it was common
to say that digital was killing music, but now….. That digital is saving
music.” Despite the tiny increase in sales, the music industry has come up with
new ways to support their industry by combining services with Apple’s ITunes
and subscriptions with Google. It is taking some time but the music industry is
still going strong regardless of music piracy and streaming.
Apart from music
piracy being a lee-way for users to listen and download music illegally there has
been a recent update that music piracy is no longer the most popular target out
there. Studies have shown there has been a decrease over the last few years. From
the article “Music Piracy way down, Study Shows” discusses the new trend that has
taken over. It was a study funded by NBC
Universal and conducted by Envisional, looking at 10,000 of the most popular
files on the BitTorrent tracker PublicBT and found that music comprised just
2.9 percent of the files examined. The most popular pirated material was Porn, which
compromised 35.8 percent. (Malone 2011). It’s interesting to see that music
piracy isn’t as big of a deal as it was before. It seems as though consumers
are starting to shift their habits, whether it is legal downloading or porn but
music piracy still leaves a lot of consequences for those left in the music
industry.
Not only are there consequences for those within the
music industry, but it is just as severe to those committing the crime. People
are still fighting charges for downloading illegal music and being charged
thousands of dollars for committing the act.
A recent article “Consumers Could Start Receiving Anti-Piracy Notices
This Week” reveals actions being taken on those committing the crime. They say
starting in a few days the five participating ISP’s ((AT&T, Comcast,
Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and Verizon) will take matters in their own
hands and start sending out alerts and possibly slowing down Internet
connection.
Music Piracy has had its share of pros and cons towards the music industry, but it just seems to never really quite die out. Do you think music piracy will continue its success with illegal downloads or do you think over time it will eventually become obsolete?
Bachman, Katy. "Consumers Could Start Receiving Anti-Piracy Notices This Week." AdWeek. Technology, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.
Malone, Aemon. "Music Piracy Way Down, Study
Shows." Digital Trends Music Piracy Way down Study Shows Comments.
Digital Trends, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 –
180
Pfanner, Eric. "Music Industry Sales Rise, and
Digital Revenue Gets the Credit." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.
Alanna,
ReplyDeleteThe issue of music piracy has been one of the most controversial topics in the media industry in the past couple of decades. Despite constant efforts by musicians, the government, public interest groups, and music platforms like youtube.com to halt this trend, media consumers have still found creative, yet technically illegal ways to download music. As consumers of media, we want to support out favorite artists financially so they can keep producing music, however we still use music piracy to get their music for free. Call it instinctual, but if we can get something for free as opposed to paying for it we will probably go with the former. Just about everyone of my friends uses some form of illegal music piracy to download music, as this “trend” has basically become implemented into our media consuming behaviors as a normal routine for consuming music media. In fact, just before I started this blog response I used a youtube audio-ripper website to download about a dozen songs, but that doesn’t leave this class.
Music piracy has obviously affected the music industry financially, as the concept of buying physical CDs or even digital versions of albums has almost become a thing of the past. No longer do we see music stores such as FYE, Strawberry’s, or extensive sections in department stores dedicated to music. In “Rethinking the Music Industry”, Nancy Baym iterates how “US music sales reached $14.6 billion in 1999, and have since fallen more than 40%” (Baym, 177). This drop in sales due to music piracy has impacted the way recording companies allocate their funds to musicians, especially new artists and those in niché music genres. “Costs have risen, budgets have shrunk, and workforces and artist rosters have been cut more than 25% (Wikstrom, 2009). There is no doubt that the economics of music have been profoundly disrupted” (Baym, 177). It goes without saying that to produce an album, an artist or band needs a considerable amount of production money either funded by themselves, or in most cases, a recording company. Yet with recording companies becoming more and more tentative to sign new contracts, the amount of new musicians entering the market has been detrimentally affected. Niché and alternative genres of music are becoming more and more obsolete as record companies take more capitalistic approaches to making as much money as possible with their artists. Why would a company sign a young blues artist or jazz band when they can sign a less talented but attractive and young pop singer who is bound to make money following today’s trends in popular music?
However, I think that there is still hope in the music industry being saved from music piracy in the upcoming years. Aemon Malone’s article “Music Piracy Way Down, Study Shows” comments on how the issue of music piracy is slowing down a bit recently. “Even as online music is increasingly more mainstream-capitalist and less underground-pirate, the threat may not be as benign as Envision’s study makes it seem” (Malone). The article states how music files accounted for only 2.9% of illegally downloaded files in 2010, much lower than rates for movie and television show files. This to me was a very surprising statistic, as I would have estimated it to be upwards of 50%.
As a heavy consumer of music and amateur musician myself, I have faith that music piracy won’t have catastrophic effects on the art and integrity of music. Musicians obviously need to make money in order to continue making and producing music, and piracy undoubtedly cuts into their sales significantly. After all it is their job, and when their artwork is consumed without financial reparations it often leads to their careers being cut short, before they can get noticed and picked up by a record company. However, I have utmost respect for artists who produce music because it is what they love, and don’t hold grudges against their fans who consume their music illegally. It is in the hands of radio companies, websites such as Pandora and Spotify, word-of-mouth advertising tactics, and live performances to help improve music sales and allow new musicians to pursue their dreams and receive financial support from media consumers.
ReplyDeleteAlanna,
ReplyDeleteAs you have stated, music piracy has become ridiculously popular and unfortunately acceptable to many people in society today. When posed with the question if I feel music piracy will continue or do I feel it will eventually become obsolete, I would like to say, I would believe illegally downloading music will stop, and someday be obsolete. The true reason I feel this way though, is not because we, as a society, realize it is an actual crime, but we fear the consequences and punishments that will be coming our way if we don’t stop.
As we have all heard time and time again, illegally downloading music is a very serious offense, yet, it happens day after day. Intrigued by this topic, I asked all of my roommates, six females, if they have ever or currently illegally download their music, and we all answered “yes.” At one point or another during the last year, we all agreed we have illegally downloaded at least one song. It is a shame that illegal downloading is so detrimental to the music industry, yet so widely accepted. In the article,”Rethinking the Music Industry,” Nancy Baym, even explains how people in today’s society are willing to share these illegal downloads, stating, “music fans have developed many ways to filter and organize music for one another, writing mp3 blogs, creating news sites, booking live acts in their towns, building archives, and more” (Baym, 179). Yes, she notes this can be seen as a form of supportive advertising, but she continues on to explain how many of these sites have been sent notices to take-down their site, as this “sharing” of music is threatening the music industry (Baym, 180).
We might not understand how severe the effect of pirating music has on the music industry, but it is an intense amount. Tom McCourt and Patrick Burkat provided statistical information in their text, “When Creators, Corporations and Consumers Collide,” stating, the domestic recording industry claims to lose $300 million per year to pirate recordings
(Burkat &McCourt, 291). They even incorporated a predication that was done in 2000, from the article, “Record Labels Are Hearing an Angry Song,” that noted, by 2002, an estimated 16 percent of all US music sales, or $985 million, would be lost to on-line piracy (Foege, 2000). When I read that prediction, my jaw dropped. If millions of dollars were predicated to be lost back in 2002, how much money do you think is lost in the music industry today, due to music pirating?
Yes, you stated the rate of illegal downloads seems to be decreasing as of the recent years, and I hope it continues this way. As a frequent music listener, I see how obvious and drastic the effect of illegal downloading has on the artists and corporations in the music industry today, and I sincerely hope this comes to an end. The law enforcement has stepped up, and as it has been mentioned, severe punishments now await people who illegally download music, which I think is a saving grace to the music industry. It is about time, that strict matters are taken and the pirating of music comes to an end.
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180
Foege, A. 'Record Labels Are Hearing an Angry Song', New York Times 11 June 2000: BU4.
Tom McCourt & Patrick Burkart, “When Creators, Corporations and Consumers Collide:
Napster and the Development of On-line Music Distribution” in The Media Studies Reader,
Laurie Ouelette, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2012), 288 - 299.
Raquel Doering
ReplyDeleteAlanna,
Your blog post was very interesting. Music piracy is a very intriguing issue, because as you mentioned, it is an extremely wide spread phenomenon that has powerful advantages and disadvantages. Also, because of the Internet, the music industry has morphed into an industry of participatory culture and thus, the industry must learn to adapt to succeed.
According to Tom McCourt’s and Patrick Burkart’s “When Creators, Corporations, and Consumers Collide,” there is an obvious tension between the music industry and consumers. While recording companies desire strong protection of their products, consumers want digital music players that are user-friendly and restriction-free (McCourt & Burkart 290). According to Nancy Baym’s “Rethinking the Music Industry,” the “Internet has empowered audiences”(Baym 178), and the relationship between producers and audiences must be renegotiated (180).
The music industry and the U.S. government have been trying to manage piracy issues since 1996 (McCourt & Burkart 288). Record companies, especially the Big Five, have been threatened by technological developments that have affected the music industry (289). McCourt and Burkat explain that the “recording industry earns profits by controlling intellectual property rights” (290). When that intellectual property is placed on the Internet for consumers to use and download for free, the recording industry loses direct revenue that they would have gained if the material had been purchased. For this reason, music piracy is technically theft just as it would be considered theft if an individual stole a bike or a purse. To assist record companies in deterring piracy, the U.S. government enacted the 1996 Telecommunications Act (288) and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Sonny Bono Term Extension Act (291), while the Big Five “have united behind the Digital Rights Management Technologies” (294).
Although the Internet has made music piracy possible, the Internet has also helped the Big Five and other entities of the music industry. For instance, the Internet has allowed for “cross-promotional and cross-industrial channels for marketing products on-line as well as off-line” and created an “enhanced marketplace” (McCourt & Burkart 294). Furthermore, according to Baym, “businesses are rapidly emerging” to make sense of audiences’ participation and help manage it (Baym 179). The music industry is now home to a myriad of jobs that did not exist a few years ago and will create future jobs to continue to develop with audiences (179).
Raquel Doering (continued)
DeleteFurthermore, the music industry must accept, as Baym asserts, that the “practices of participatory audiences will continue to evolve and…is likely irreversible” and the industry must adapt to succeed (Baym 179). According the Ben Sisario’s “Pandora and Spotify Rake in the Money and Then Send It Off to the Royalties,” Spotify and Pandora are testing the waters. While Pandora earns revenue through advertisements, Spotify asks most of its users to pay small monthly subscriptions ranging from five to ten dollars (Sisario). While both digital music providers foster an impressive number of registered users, neither company is pulling a substantial profit. Thus, as Baym states, “producers and audiences must renegotiate what will be paid for, by whom, and how much they will be willing to pay for it” (Baym 180).
Therefore, music piracy is an imperative issue, which has both positive and negative effects, in the music industry. Because the Internet has made music piracy, along with other participatory actions in regards to music possible, the music industry must learn to adapt. Consumers will not revert to being mere purchasers of music. As a result, the industry and the consumers must reach a compromise in order for the industry to succeed and consumers to be satisfied.
Works Cited
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry.” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180. Taylor & Francis Ltd.,Web. 25 Mar. 2013
McCourt, Tom and Patrick Burkart. “When Creators, Corporations, and Consumers Collide: Napster and the Development of On-line Music Distribution.” Media Culture & Society. Sage Publications, 2011. Web. 25. Mar. 2013
Sisario, Ben. "Pandora and Spotify Rake In the Money and Then Send It Off in Royalties." Media Decoder. The New York Times Copmany, 24 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.
Alanna,
ReplyDeleteThis issue of music piracy has been going on for years. Despite the best efforts of music companies and the government, it has not come to an end. Countless downloading applications and converting sites have been shut down. However, as soon as one goes, someone produces a replacement. The government warned the public about the possible repercussions of illegal downloads, but at the end of the day it is disregarded because no one thinks that they will be one of the few to get caught. The fact is that they cannot stop every means of illegally downloading. The easiest thing to do is purchase a bootleg copy of the newest album on the sidewalks of New York.
Yes, music piracy is greatly reducing the revenue that artists usually bring in. In the article "Rethinking the Music Industry," Nancy Baym states that music sales have dropped more than 40% since 1999. The article by Burkat & McCourt states that the domestic recording industry claims to lose $300 million per year to pirate recordings.That is a significant decrease.
Nancy Baym also says, " the real story is how the internet has empowered audiences, allowing them to transcend distance and reach large audiences themselves, providing infrastructures for group communication, supporting archiving, enabling new forms of creative engagement, and lessening the social distance between them and media producers." I believe that this is true. The internet made it so easy got new artists to emerge. With sites that broadcast new music daily, audiences can "try before they buy." In today's society not many people are willing to invest money in something that they do not know if they will like. People all around the world can log on to a site like HotNewHipHop and download songs that have gotten a Hot rating. Many artists have accepted this and have begun to leak songs from their own mixtapes and albums. I believe that this is also a way for artists to gain a large following before they really hit mainstream.
Personally, I know that I have not illegally downloaded music in more than a year. It simply takes too long. With applications such as Pandora and Spotify, who really needs to? They allow you to stream music from any place at any time for only a fee once a month.
References
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010)
McCourt, Tom and Patrick Burkart. “When Creators, Corporations, and Consumers Collide: Napster and the Development of On-line Music Distribution.” Media Culture & Society. Sage Publications, 2011. Web. 25. Mar. 2013
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