Debate: Buying Music Vs. Saving Money

   For as long as I can remember, I have been purchasing music from different forms of cassette tapes, to CDs, and now via mp3's and ipods. The music industry has a big impact on my life and I dedicate a lot of time and money on it. It occurs to me, "How could anyone have over 6,00 songs, when they, without a doubt, could not afford many things." The answer is simple, it is because of all the people around the world using illegal downloading to get the music they want.
   
  The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has stated that since 1999's very own peer-to-peer (p2p) online program, Napster, the sales of music have dropped 47%, from 14.6 billion down to 7.7nillion. From 2004 to 2009 alone, over 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks. Piracy is the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material for profit, but that term has changed over the years. A p2p program allows people to share music for others to download music for free, but LimeWire was different. LimeWire gave users the option to have the program where it is free for all, or a premium account where a small fee is charged for more access to free music and other files. Because downloading music for free without the consent of artists and labels is copyright infringement, there are consequences that you would have to pay. The RIAA have stated that for each offense of the crime an individual may be fined over $250,000 and could be sent to jail for 25 years. The Christian Music Trade Association stated that to their records, the RIAA can sue an individual the amount of $150,000 per song that was illegally downloaded. Almost 2,000 individuals have been sued by the RIAA for illegally downloading music as of March 2004. Over 400 individuals paid the fine of averaging $3,000.

   So you bought a car that has a CD player instead of the cassette player; there's a solution to that. There are now converters that consumers purchase to convert their cassette tapes to CDs. Consumers can also either use various apps to stream music such as Spotify, which is a legal application (as stated by the RIAA) that allows you to make a playlist of songs to listen to on the go. You can save the music industry by buying songs through Amazon MP3, iTunes, and Yahoo! Music. If you put yourself in the mind of the artists that you love and look up to, imagine yourself losing money and imagine why you're playing more shows than you really should not be playing in the first place.

    The other perspective on this debate is you save money when you  obtain music illegally. In the past 10 years, the ability to obtain music illegally has blossomed. Though the music industry is telling people not to download music illegally, I think that there are circumstances when illegally downloading music is called for. To me, There are too many different forms of music to keep up with. If I were to buy an album in record, cassette, and Cd form, why should I buy music I already own. Music is released by region. Some music never sees America. Why should one limit his or herself to music only released in that country? There is a very slim possibility that the music might make its way over to the states. There is Spotify, an app that allows for users to listen to music as if it is their own, but if you don have a smart phone or a mp3 that cannot obtain apps, then there is no way to use it.

    Many musicians release multiple remixes of music that are not available on their album. Katy Perry is a perfect example. On her latest album there were multiple remixes that were not on the original album. As a consumer, it is better to buy the 12-track album for $9.99 on iTunes. However, there were singles being released that were not originally on the album. So, if I liked the songs, I would have to then go out and spend $1.29 for the remixes of "E.T." featuring Kanye West, "Last Friday Night", featuring Missy Elliot, and "The One That got Away". which had three different releases: a radio version, a remix with B.O.B and an acoustic version. If one did decide to illegally download one of the many Katy Perry remixes after already owning the album, I would not blame them. People will forever support their favorite artist. With that said, it is unfair to the consumer if the artist is doing a Katy Perry, and is releasing remix after remix, just to exploit the fans in order to gain more income.
    

 

This video is an example of a person that got caught illegally downloading music and sharing music with other people, that now has to deal with severe consequences.