Free Music! But At What Cost?

You may be confused by the title of this article. It may have blown your mind. You see, many, probably most, of you reading this have in some way been given or downloaded music illegally. While great for you, it free music has been detrimental to many. Who you ask? And how? Read on…

Since 1999, music sales have cut in a little more than half, from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $6.3 billion in 2009. Although the Recording Industry Association of America will report its official figures in the early spring, the trend has been very clear: RIAA has reported declining revenue in nine of the past 10 years, with album sales falling an average of 8% each year.  The 90′s ( a decade many of you probably only listened to kids music) saw a crazy growth in music sales because of the great number of cassettes and CD’s bought. But the digital music gained immense popularity and everything changed…

Right now you may be thinking, most of my friends have some sort of Portable Music Player (like an iPod). Almost everyone I know listens to some kind of music. So how could the music industry possibly be losing so much money. Well, I can give all you skeptics a one word answer and it is spelled F-R-E-E. Free. Gratis in spanish.

It all started with Napster.  In 1999, Napster, a free online file-sharing service, made its debut. Not only did Napster change the way people got their music, but it also changed the price of the music to the magic word: free. Eventually Napster was shut down, after being sued by the music industry, but Apple kept the digital revolution alive with iTunes in 2003.

Raise your hand if you use iTunes. Hey you, I know you have iTunes in the dock right below this screen. Raise the hand. I am sure almost all of you use iTunes to get or store some of your music. But the transition from free to 99 cents a song (now more for some songs) was not easy. Many of Napster’s near 60 million users found other ways to get their music for free. Even now, statistics show that more than half of the people who buy digital music legally are not happy about having to pay.

I am not going to say I have never gotten music illegally. I am not going to say I have, but you can infer what you want. And I’ll admit, things are better when they are free. But even though you aren’t paying, you are hurting someone. Think about that new artist that you love, or rapper/singer/DJ were created that new track you cannot stop listening to. When download their music illegally, or my some means get the music illegally, they are not getting any money for their work. If we really want to be analytical, it actually goes against their constitutional rights to the fruit of their labor. But we won’t go there. In essence, you are getting the music you want, but eventually this decision to not buy the music will come back to haunt you when the new artist you like isnt making enough money as an artist because people are not buying his or her or their music. Not having enough money, he or she or they will not be able to create a new album. That seems dramatic, and in some ways it is, but even if your situation is not dramatic, in someway you are hurting someone’s income by downloading music illegally.

So music lovers and other people of the world, unite. Let’s buy our music. iTunes is cheap in comparison to the cost of CD’s. Even if you can’t kick the illegal music habit, at least try not to illegally share all the illegal music you download. That just ain’t right.

0101, GadgetGuy

Leave you comments, questions, thoughts, or anything else below!

 Loading ...