Death of Music? so what

It is no secret that the music industry is struggling in the wake of the internet. File sharing application allow people to freely share playlists, without permission from any of the musicians and copyright holders. This is wrong and illegal.

By giving people the opportunity to do this, they will be very reluctant to stop doing this, and start parting with their cash for music. All of this is common knowledge and although illegal, most people either do it themselves or know people that do and think nothing of it. The amount of times I’ve heard ‘But the artists don’t get any money from record sales anyway’. Even if the record companies get the huge revenue, there is a lack of money in the whole industry, if it’s not going to the artists, then any illegally downloaded music takes money away from the record companies too.

I’m not trying to deffend these record companies, but trying to open peoples eyes. The very companies that put the music out into the world are starting to feel the impact. New technologies is giving people an increasing scope for media consumption. The iPod generation is hungry for content and is finding it by depriving people supplying it. If record labels go bust who is going to introduce the world to the vast array of music in circulation?

There is this underground music movement in which people seek to find new bands, and due to file sharing, there is a lot more music visible. It is getting increasing numbers of people ito the act of listening to music. Although this is merely a consolation for the industry, it is actually its downfall. Everything about music distribution is changing from the artwork, to listener behavior. In an episode of Digital Plannet podcast (11 Nov 08) Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones says that if they were producing musc in today’s environment, they would not have the same aura about them, saying that ‘I think what would of happened at the time is that you would of had Teenage Kicks but I’m not sure you’d have too much after that’.

There are many ways in which people could try to justify the illegal download of music, but the fact is that they are costing the UK industry a massive £1.1 billion. A report by IFPI claims that 95% of music downloads are illegal, so next time you think about downloading ask yourself, what are the consequences of doing this?