Music Copyright

Art defines us, allowing us unleash our personalities and creative abilities through forms such as painting, sculpture, and, of course, music. For centuries, music artists in specific have exchanged ideas, embracing the culture of combining folk songs and tunes into their newer pieces of music. Today, some music artists wish to carry on with that tradition in what is now known as “rap sampling”. This method of sharing music has now interfered with the modern concept of copyright. With this relatively new legal action used to protect original works, ancient traditions of sharing music can no longer be practiced freely.

Is important for anyone who has created any intellectual property to protect it. In the music industry, in order for someone to protect their work, they must obtain a copyright. Music has been around before anyone could obtain a copyright and when the invention of the computer came along it made it easier for someone to steal another artist's intellectual property with the help of the internet. This paper will cover what events have taken a big role in copyright protection for artist, the consequences if someone was to break the rules of a copyright which is called copyright infringement, and how will a copyright hold in the future. Were copyrights enacted without the thought of life changing technology, and how can some music companies

When wanting to listen to a song today, one no longer has to buy or download a physical copy. In today’s world, streaming has become one of the top ways of retrieving music content. This major change has led to a profound shift for the music industry and its artists. It has developed a continuous conflict that affects the way music is distributed and how artists make a living. Listeners stream music electronically through their computers, phones, cars, and more. Most of these streaming platforms allow for the content to be free, which directs to the question of whether music should be free or not. Streaming is a topic that has presented itself to be a valid issue on whether it ultimately hurts or helps artists and their careers. Streaming has both pros and cons, but in order to aim to figure a possible solution there needs to an examination of the history of the issue, a proper analysis of both sides, and evaluating its importance.

To answer this, Copyright Law must be understood. Copyright Laws protect intellectual property, and ownership rights. Artists can control their content by selling, leasing it or giving it away. Artists can grant permission for their work and have the freedom to charge. It encourages creativity, and protects the creativity by keeping it exclusive to the creator which allows profit. Mass media embodies the Copyright content,

“We now have the ability to consume massive amounts of torrent or streams of music” due to its availability (Muller). People can simply go online and listen to their favorite artists for free with the click of a mouse. For example, global online audio distribution platforms such as SoundCloud, Pandora, and Spotify all boast a vastly enormous library of online music; furthermore, these platforms allow their users to listen to any song for free and construct their own music playlists that is unique for each user. Why bother buying a CD or an album when you can listen to the songs you want to at any time on your phone or your laptop?

Nowadays, the world of music has become one of the favorite ways to enjoy daily activities with people. Moreover, the technology provides an opportunity to people to learn how to produce music. However, here comes a serious problem with the convenience of the easy accessibility to get the music resources, it caused the problems of indiscriminate use and pirated copyright.

Since music streaming on the cloud has begun, it has changed the way people listen to music and also the way that artists share and promote their music. The music industry started out sharing its products by selling hard copies like vinyl record and tapes. People who purchased this music who wanted to listen to it on the go or share it with friends had to physically transport

Over the past fifty years, the British Music Publishing industry has undergone dramatic changes. It has evolved as an entity with innovations in technology, changes and creations of laws and new mediums to promote and exploit songs to a wider audience. Therefore, the way in which the music publishing industry operates and exploits its assets has completely transformed, and continues to do so at a rapid pace. This paper will attempt to explore the ways in which publishers exploit song copyrights and the way in which this has changed over the past 60 years. It is important to define what is meant by copyright and its role within the industry. The Performing Right Society website states: “Copyright

Copyright is the legal right, to an inventor to perform, print, publish, film, or record artistic, literary, or musical material, and to allow others to do the same. Copyright law was developed to provide the creators and inventors of any works with powerful and effective rights of exclusivity over their creations (Patterson & Lindberg, 1991). Over the past, these rights were almost unlimited. People would use existing developments as if they were their own without any regard of the creator’s exclusive rights. The need to balance and limit such rights arose, and governments established these limits for the general good of the public.

Music Copyright is a very important aspect of the music industry. The Copyright law was established to preserve the creativity and rights of authors, composers, performers of expression. Copyright is the law that protects the property rights of the creator of an original work in a fixed tangible medium. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright) A fixed tangible medium is something substantial like copying lyrics on paper or putting a song on tape or CD. Copyright can be seen every where in the music industry. Many music artist of our culture today have been involved in copyright issues. Recently, on MTV news it was stated that, "As the music industry becomes increasingly concerned about protecting the

Copyright is legal protection for creators of original works, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, audiovisual, and other intellectual works. With the exceptions listed below, copyright holders have the only right (and the only right to authorize others) to do the following: to reproduce the work; to make derivative works; to distribute copies of the work; to perform the work; and to display the work publicly. Mere ownership of a book, illustration, photograph or negative, videotape, or musical work does NOT give the possessor the copyright.

Have you ever wondered what music piracy, or did you already know but never knew both sides? Well music piracy is the large scale, of unauthorized duplication of recorded music with the intent to defraud the copyright holder of his/her royalties; this includes the composers, lyricists and performing artist. The importance of music piracy is that it impacts the music industry causing them to lose billions of dollars each year. Some people feel like music piracy is stealing , and should be illegal because it causes millions of people to lose their jobs due to the lack of money being made.

Music licensing is certainly not the ideal solution to maintain the integrity of the art. Music licensing has created situation in which people actually have to pay to use folk songs such as "Happy Birthday" in certain circumstances. The company that owns the license to the song actually receives millions of dollars every year for a song that nobody knows who originally wrote. However, compensating artists for their works is a complicated endeavor and does not receive much public funding in a capitalist system. Therefore, even though the licensing practice may be counter-productive the art form and overly commercialized, it is a necessary evil that must be tolerated in modern society.

Another Philosophy that can be used in evaluating the ethics of is Deontology which is judging an action based on societal norms in place already. Copyright laws have been around well before technology and they have protected intellectual property as well as the rights of musicians. With the music piracy risk evolving as technology has the copyright laws have as well still stating that the reproduction or sharing of music files is unlawful. “Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of copyright in original musical works, the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to: To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords; To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; To perform the work publicly.” (Digmedia) So since there has always been an established idea that what someone else produces is their property and can only be obtained with a contract and under certain stipulations of usage therefore Deontology would agree this is ethically

Because of iTunes, consumers have become more private listeners. Every song and album sits directly in front of each consumer. Listeners buy the songs they personally want and place them on their own portable music players. They listen to the songs by themselves as a private experience (Griggs & Leopold). Consumers do still share music, but do not engage in the social experience that existed before iTunes and digital music. Today, listeners share music by sending song files to each other or posting music on social media sites completely taking the shared and social aspect out of music. The shift in behavior from enjoying music as a social experience to listening to music as a personal experience has changed culture and society. Today’s world is all about the individual. People want things for themselves and they want them now. ITunes helped in changing culture and society to be this way by making songs and albums available instantly to each person. With iTunes, people can get the music they want instantly and are encouraged to listen to music as a more private experience.