Whats wrong with Music Piracy?

How is the music industry affected by Music Piracy?

The music industry is a huge industry made up of hundreds of thousands of people across hundreds of countries. All countries, big or small have some kind of music industry within them, as it is a form of culture. But is this industry thriving or dying due to Music Piracy? Some people believe otherwise but statistics show that the Music Industry as a whole is starting to lose a large amount of profit due to music Piracy. Why would people buy music when they can simply download it for free? Where most adults understand why they should buy music, most young people (ages 13 - 20) don't really care or understand the full affect that not buying music has on the music Industry. Three years ago in the United States of America alone there was over 12 billion dollars in profit lost due to Music Piracy. This caused 70,000 people to lose jobs connected to the music industry. The Music Industry is often thought of Artists and Producers. But really the music industry is composed of a lot more then this. There are producers and artists yes, but there are also technicians, writers, editors, logistics and a large amount of other jobs associated with producing a single song. However the music Industry also lost a lot of money due to the fact that no one buys CD's anymore. People can download whole albums online for absolutely nothing so why should they bother buying a CD. The music industry is suffering greatly under the weight and extent of music piracy. Although many artists aren't losing much profit which is what the media is focusing on, many people are losing their jobs and incomes. If we don't come up with some kind of solution to avoid the affects of Music Piracy, soon it won't be a profitable venture, and then even more people will be looking for jobs.


There are some simple things that you can do to help fight the affects of Music Piracy and support all the people out there losing their jobs. This is quite simply:

1. Take a pledge! You may not think so but every person is important the less people who pirate music the better. Not only are you supporting people but you are eliminating risk from yourself aswell (risks explained later).
2. Start a campaign at your school or place of work and try and get as many people as you can involved. The more people the better, Music Piracy isn't something you can solve over night but given enough time who knows?
3. Let people know about the information here. If it got you inspired to stop downloading illegally maybe it can convince other people of the same.

What's really the difference between websites such as freshoncampus.com and programs such as Napster from other programs such as iTunes and Spotify?

The simple answer is permission. When an artist creates a new song, the record company that the artist is associated with automatically gets the song what is called a copyright. What this means is that the artist and producers of the song have full rights over how and where the song can be used. These copyrights are official legal documents giving the artist and producer full control over the song that they create. This therefore means that no one is allowed to do anything with the song without either getting the owner of the copyrights permission or by paying the artist/producer a percentage for the song (such as on websites such as iTunes). This means that every song with a copyright is illegal to download from any source where the artist is not given some form of compensation or has not provided their own consent. Where programs such as iTunes rely on paying (via. a percentage of the money paid to them) the artists for their songs other programs such as Spotify rely on the artists consent. Artists agree to allow their music to be downloaded from programs such as Spotify which therefore despite the fact that you aren't paying per song it is not illegal. Music downloading websites such as freshoncampus.com or programs like Napster have neither the artists consent to allow their music to be downloaded nor do they compensate the artist, which makes them illegal. So basically the legality of downloading music online really depends on both the copyright of the particular song, and also the type of artist. 


Many people dont know that there are actually serious risks involved with Music Piracy. Technically due to the fact that Music Piracy is illegal, there is a punishable sentence available to anyone who in fact Pirates Music. This varies from country to country but normally is a multiple thousand dollar fine and possibly years in jail. Is paying 99 cents for a song really so much that you would risk going to jail for it?

In order to avoid getting into trouble by using sites like this there are a few simple recommendations that you can follow:

1. Assume naturally that most online websites where music is available to be downloaded is untrustworthy. More often then not all websites which allow for free downloading of music are technically violating the terms of the artist copyright. Only download from websites which are official: such as popular radio stations websites, and artists own websites which were set up by them.
2. Use programs such as iTunes and Spotify which allow you to pay a very small amount of money to the artist in return for downloading their songs.
3. If you really want to listen to a song just once, don't try and download it illegally simply go to websites such as YouTube where you can view official music videos of the song which are uploaded, with the intention of being viewed, by the artist.