Argumentative Essay On Digital Music

The music recording industry is in trouble. For several years now, sales of new and popular music have steadily declined and show no sign of changing. The record companies are quick to blame the growing popularity of the Internet; music is being traded in a digital form online, often anonymously, with the use of file-sharing programs such as Morpheus, KaZaA, and Imesh, to name a few. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) succeeded in disbanding the pioneer Internet file-sharing program, Napster, but is facing confrontation with similar programs that are escaping American copyright laws. While there is an obvious connection between declining popular music

The digital age has brought innumerable benefits to society throughout the past decade. Many new markets have been created, and routes for innovation have opened, but not all industries have flourished as a result of this era. Music piracy, which is the illegal act of obtaining or distributing sound recordings without the owner’s permission, is theorized to be the ultimate downfall of the music industry. CD sales have plummeted and caused the music moguls to panic, but their worriedness might be narrow sighted. Through speculative research, it can be surmised that the act of piracy can positively influence a musician’s career, allow for new opportunities and niches in the market, and have little side effects to anyone else in the business.

In addition to cost, another factor that computers introduced was a faster pace of life. Faster forms of media birthed the creation of T. V. networks such as MTV and VH1 to carry popular music at an incredible rate to viewers. A majority of pop music artists in the last decade have one thing in common: their fame rose and declined faster than high school relationships. Faster life means a demand to have better quality music, with low cost, with people who were not focusing on music as an art, but as a way to get thousands of teen females screaming their name. Musicians have to export larger quantities of music which is current and within the boundaries of trends.

The only thing that I have kept on doing for over ten years besides things I need to do in order to survive is listening to music, and somehow I am lucky enough to make a living out of it, as I ended up working managing a indie music website. Both my parents have been writing codes since computers came along, and they are wildly considered as pioneers and experts in their field. Continually spending time on a certain subject really makes you

In the article “Internet Piracy Harms Artists”, Phil Gardson explains how internet piracy such as online music sharing and other forms of copyrighting music hurts hardworking singers and songwriters. He also asserts that it is imperative that Congress should in act a law against these types of crimes to help protect artists.

Digital piracy on music has been a majorly disputed affair for the last eighteen years, about whether or not it favors the musical artists or affects them in a negative fashion. One of the many sides of the Digital piracy controversy expounds that it benefits the artist(s) by giving them a great deal of exposure that they may not have received had they not downloaded it for free, which in turn makes for a very significant acquisition in terms of sales on their part.

Several years ago, over in the state of Kentucky, during a Gospel Meeting the preacher was invited into a certain home for the dinner meal. Although, the wife stood alongside her husband as he extended the invitation, the preacher sensed that she wasn’t altogether happy about having a preacher in her home.

The music industry has undergone radical changes since the end of the 1990’s, largely a function of the internet and its effects on sales and copyright. Besides placing artists and their music on the world stage, the internet also permitted the downloading of music from free-file- exchange networks. A parallel and equally worrisome, phenomenon is record pirating, a practice made easier by the proliferation of CD burners and access to high speed internet. Unauthorized downloading and pirating circumvent intellectual property laws and result in reduced sales. “In Atlantic Canada, average annual household expenditures on CDs and audio cassettes dropped by 27 percent between 1996 and 2001, from $96.00 to $70.00.”

In “The Music Industry Has Been Revolutionized,” Greg Kot explains musicians in the music industry are experiencing unwanted change around the world from technology since the popularity of file-sharing websites available online. Consumers of music don’t want to pay for music because of the increased availability, although not doing so prevents revenue for musicians. Explained in Kot’s article, increased popularity of file-sharing has made access to music so convenient to the point where the music industry is confused about how to respond to the lack of revenue while still keeping music readily available for consumer use. New technology has allowed the music industry more opportunities in being efficient with producing music. Furthermore, it

Have you ever wanted to learn to play an instrument or to sing in a choir? Millions of students don’t have the opportunity to learn music at their schools and develop their talents due to budget cuts. In Chicago Public Schools 10% of teachers laid off taught art or music, one-hundred and five teachers were let go (Hambek, 1). A student that was raised in poverty can’t afford to pay for music classes outside of school. If that school doesn’t offer musical electives, that student wouldn’t be able to learn what they have always wanted to. Many students face this problem, they want to learn music but can’t because their schools have cut it to ‘fix’ their budget. Music electives should remain an opportunity for students in all schools; musical training

The question then became “Just because we can get the music we want without paying for it, should we?” (Tyson, 2000, p.1). This issue of illegal downloads, which is also referred to as piracy, has been a hot topic ever since the introduction of Napster. According to Recording Industry Association of America “In the decade since peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 47 percent, from $14.6 billion to $7.7 billion” (RIAA, 2014).

Introduction: Setting the trend for the future, the distribution and consumption of recorded music transformed dramatically with the launching of Apple’s iTunes in 2001. The proliferation of online music subscription services and other music sharing services exerted a great pressure on the conventional music distribution business model. Combined with this transformation, piracy of digital music had a profound impact on the whole industry. These worsening conditions in the market place for recorded music forced both established and upcoming new artists to experiment with new ways of selling their music.

In the midst of the United States’ “dot com bubble” (years 1997-2000), there was a surge in technology that brought about file sharing and digital downloads. Threatening the survival of the music industry and introducing a unique set of challenges for the industry to overcome. To remain relevant in the new global market of digital music online, the music industry would have to evolve and change with the introduction of each new facet technology had to offer. The introduction of digitally compressed music files, so easily attainable for a small fee or downloaded legally (pirated) for free, made the music industry reevaluate how to make a profit and protect copyrights. Social media created a visible opportunity for both consumers and artists to maintain digital relationships while providing a platform for consumers to follow and discover new musicians and bands, naturally, making the internet a promotional medium for artists. As the corner record shops closed to make way for virtual storefronts and instant downloads; the internet, digital downloading, and social media made an enormous impact on the music industry that has changed the way consumers purchase, source, listen to, and produce music today.

Ever since 18-year-old Shawn Fanning created Napster in his Northeastern University dorm room in 1999, downloading and sharing music online has become one of the most popular things to do on the Internet today. But why wouldn't it? Getting all your favorite songs from all your favorite artists for free, who wouldn't want to start sharing music? The answer to that question are the people who feel that stealing from the music industry is not morally right, because that is exactly what every person who shares music is doing. People who download music think it's something they can get away with but now it might be payback time to a lot of those people.

Companies like Apple, have decided that it is best to get in with the downloading business. However, an end to the illegal downloading conflict remains to be realized. The RIAA and associated artists continue to wage war against illegal downloaders while computer savvy audiences persist in sharing music files online every day. While it is undoubtedly true that downloading music is a crime, it remains to be proven that it is wrong. Without establishing this principle, most downloader's are likely to continue the activity. Even with new, inexpensive and available means of downloading files, they can still be shared for free online. The rift must be repaired between music lovers who feel that they have been taken advantage of in the past and recording companies and artists who worry about their future livelihood.