Digital Piracy

The Rise of Digital Piracy and the fall of the Music Industry Imagine hearing your favorite band’s new song on the radio for the first time. You love it, and the moment you get home you head straight for your computer and find the song on iTunes. Upset with the fact that you would have to pay $1.29 for the song, you search the Internet and find one of the many digital piracy websites and download the song illegally. Sure, you may have obtained the song for free, but you have also just stolen from your favorite band. Growing up surrounded by music and being an aspiring musician myself, I quickly developed a great appreciation for the art. Because my father is a business manager for several bands, I went to quite a few concerts in my childhood; watching the artists perform on stage commanded my love and respect for what they were doing. As a true fan of the art of music, I was both shocked and disappointed when I learned that people were cheating the hard-working musicians by illegally downloading music via the Internet. Musicians work long hours and spend thousands of dollars writing, recording, and producing their music so stealing from them is no different from stealing from any store. Digital piracy is unethical because not only is the practice against the law, but it also has negative repercussions on the music industry as it yields little financial return to musicians and depicts a negative shift in consumer traditions.
One of the biggest issues today with digital piracy, according to Pola Gupta, professor of marketing at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, is that “people feel less guilty stealing from impersonal and invisible others than they do from visible persons” (Gupta 258). Many people don’t view illegal downloading as stealing because they are not physically taking something from someone else – they are simply downloading a file from the Internet, invisible to both the musicians and authorities. Globally, 10.6 million songs are downloaded illegally every hour (Gupta 264).
Due to the millions of people worldwide stealing music every day, the music industry has been in a constant period of regression for the past two decades. According to the manager of world-renowned rock band U2, Paul McGuinness, “digital piracy is degrading the music industry… 95% of music obtained around the world is downloaded illegally and unpaid for” (McGuinness). Because downloading music online for free has become so easy, people are no longer buying albums; instead, they only download the songs they want. This has shot down the profits of all musicians, as they no longer can rely on selling records to make money. Although digital piracy is not crippling highly successful bands, such as U2, young, developing artists are struggling to get started and maintain enough funds to continue making music. As McGuinness points out, “…today, control over their work is exactly what young bands are losing. It’s not their fault. It is because of piracy and the way the Internet has devalued their work” (McGuinness). It is becoming harder and harder for bands to sign with record companies because the record labels do not want to invest money in bands that aren’t going to produce profits.
Because fewer bands are getting record labels and already established bands aren’t selling as many albums, musicians are losing money and record stores are going out of business. Most successful bands from the seventies, eighties, and nineties produced at least ten albums in their careers; today, the most successful artists produce no more than four or five albums (Knopper 45). This is causing record stores all around the country to lose money, go out of business, and shut down. According to Steve Knopper, a regular contributor to Rolling Stone magazine, “nearly three quarters of all independent music shops have shut down in the last decade… only thirteen percent of people buy CDs from record stores now” (Knopper 45). With fewer people buying albums, record labels have even less incentive to give bands money to make CDs. Not are record labels hesitant to produce albums, but the artists also have less incentive to put in the time and effort to make albums. Some bands take years to put together albums and spend most of their money doing so (McGuinness). With only thirteen percent of people buying albums these days, many musicians believe the costs of making a new CD significantly outweigh the benefits.
One of the major consequences of decreased record sales is an increase in the prices of concert tickets and merchandise. In order to make up for the loss of profits surrounding album sales, musicians are forced to increase tour duration and/or jack up the prices of their concert tickets and merchandise. Since touring is very time consuming and exhausting, most musicians opt to simply raise their prices – something that concert goers are increasingly unhappy about. It is these same people, statistically and ironically, that are illegally downloading the artists’ music and causing them to raise the prices. “Ethics have become seemingly inexistent in our culture today – it is no surprise that the same people that complain about the prices of music and concerts and merchandise also actively participate in digital music piracy” (Gupta 272).
This lack of ethics pointed out by Dr. Gupta depicts a negative shift in consumer traditions, stemming from illegally downloading music. People in our society take for granted things such as music – a business that is not often thought of as a business. For example, someone may think he or she is a die-hard supporter of his or her favorite band, listening to the artists’ music or hanging up concert posters, but that same person might also download all of their music illegally. Without monetary support, businesses like the music industry cannot survive. Everything musicians do, from putting out albums to going on tour, is for the public. Everyone has the liberty to enjoy music, but many people believe they can free ride to have this liberty. If people continue to take advantage of and exploit the music industry, eventually there will be no more music (McGuinness).
It is widely accepted in the media world that any publicity is good publicity; for this reason, many people argue that although digital piracy is leading to a loss of revenue for bands, it is actually beneficial to them because more people listen to their music and become supportive fans. With this additional publicity, bands are able to sell more tickets to their concerts and in the long run make up for lost revenue from album sales. Despite the validity of this argument, stealing is still stealing – and is against the law. Not caring about stealing or breaking laws represents a negative change in consumer traditions we have been experiencing over the last decade or two. It starts with digital piracy, but who knows where it will go next? With the Internet rapidly expanding, it is only a matter of time before all digitized merchandise can and will be stolen. In addition, even if bands can make up for lost record sales by touring, there is still no incentive for them to produce new material to tour on without the short-term financial return an album can provide. Roughly half of a bands’ profit will come from record sales, and, as a business, a band cannot survive with the loss of these profits, no matter the circumstances (McGuinness).
Every choice comes with a consequence, whether it’s eating that last piece of pie or studying all day to secure a good grade. Knowing the potential consequences of a choice often plays a large role in the eventual decision. 7.7 million people each year choose to download music illegally, habitually and without paying any attention to the consequences (Gupta 264). If this continues, the music industry will keep disintegrating until there is nothing left of it. Only the consumer can implement the changes necessary to reverse the current trends of the declination of the music industry. Will you be one of the 7.7 million? Or will you have the initiative for change? The future of your favorite bands has a grim outlook; stop stealing from them so they can continue to make music and the music industry can once again thrive. Eliminating illegal downloading will recharge the music industry and may determine whether that favorite band was ever discovered in the first place.