Has anyone NOT heard about the music industries battle to stop illegal downloading of MP3 music. . . . .Sharing copyrighted music by the distribution of digital format music reportedly costs the music industry billions of dollars every year. You have to wonder how valid these figures are. My opinion is that a significant percentage of the illegal downloads are done to try the music before purchasing a legal copy. If I am correct then pirate music downloads actually serve a useful purpose, and aid music sales. I also believe that there is a significant portion of pirate MP3 music that is downloaded simply because it is free. If the person downloading had to purchase the MP3 music they wouldn't, so there would be no sale. So these downloads really don't have any net effect on the music industry income. Now I would never condone the illegal sharing of music but surely if downloading MP3 music was to aid music sales it must be looked at closely to find out just who downloads a nd more importantly WHY! If the industry were to spend a bit less on expensive law suits and a bit more in researching why people download MP3 music illegally, the problem might be resolved in a much more amicable way.
The question of why people download music without paying for it is complicated but only by the fact that because it is criminal and nobody wants to tell why they do it in case they are prosecuted for saying so. So no one talks;: the industry is not listening anyway; and there are people out there making money out of pirate downloads - sad state of affairs if you ask me. Most people when they think of pirating music usually think "internet" but there is many ways to downloads MP3 music and other digital formats both legally and illegally. Pirating music can be sharing CD's tapes and albums with friends connecting and swapping digital format music via connecting portable devices e.g. sharing songs and ring tones with friends by Bluetooth connection of phones. Sharing music on USB thumb drive or memory stick and USB external hardisk with others.
There is one group that usually seems to be forgotten in all the mud slinging and lawsuits. They are the people who DON'T seem to be able to afford the expensive lawyers and advertising campaigns telling the world about how they lose revenue from all the pirating that goes on. They are the people that actually make the music. They're the people that make the industry big shots the big fat incomes to lose - yeah! the artists, regardless of wether they are a big name or not, someone still makes the music, and they have a right be paid for their efforts. If you like the music you listen to make sure you give something to keep that music maker fed and clothed so you continue to have MP3 music that you like to listen to.
The internet takes sharing digitised data and MP3 music to a whole other level with some tricky technology that the law is struggling to understand much less legislate for. The internet introduces new ways to share your music with friends and even people you don't know. Lime wire and Imesh were early mediums to share music (and Viruses) with. These days there is a host of Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing arrangements, not fully intended for music, Skype, Facebook and many others as well as Torrents. Torrents are a dedicated file sharing system somewhat different to P2P although is often called P2P.
So the question is how do I find music I like to listen to without paying for it and stay on the right side of the law?
Can it be done? - well yes it can!
When you look around there are lots of music websites that provide music for sale (legally for sale) and most of these sites like to tempt new customers by allowing you to try the quality and ease of use of the site with free downloads. Of course some sites will limit you to incomplete songs some will only allow 1 or 2 complete songs to be downloaded and I've even seen sites that that will allow many songs but the music will only play on the sites proprietary software player. Your favourite artists they will most likely have a website that will allow you to download their music at a lower cost than buying the CD's. You may be able to buy CD's from the site at a lower price or they may give you discount vouchers to purchase their CD's at your local store at a cheaper price and they will usually allow some free downloads as well.
I think everyone would have heard of Itunes, the players and downloads are quite expensive and not to my personal liking. After having lost some of their major sponsors such as Sony (who set up shop round the corner in opposition to them) and Pepsi (who left the Itunes table to sit with another competitor) I think that Itunes probably needs to reign in the cost of the service or they'll find themselves toppled from their pedestal. The Itunes software is complicated and awkward to use. I have many customers who ask "is there any way to use my Ipod without having to use the Itunes software" there seems to be a lot of agreement about issues with Itunes software. Although Itunes do have free downloads I think the cost to be in the Itunes club is out of my budget. There are alternatives to loading up your Ipod using Itunes - check my website.
The sites that I like for downloading music provide music at very competitive rates. Not only is the music price low but they use standard MP3 music digital formats that can be played on virtually every MP3 music player on the planet even really cheap players. These are the music providers that do a fantastic job of supplying huge range of music at really reasonable rates examples of these would be Amazon and Emusic and both provide free downloads. They should be offering discounts and bonuses and to keep me as a customer they would give me incentives to offer their great service to other people I know.
Emusic will allow 45 free downloads of any music on their site and they have over 6 million songs available. Not all the music is popular artists but there are some of the best in the business available for download at the same prices as the unknowns. Emusic also has a great talking book service. Every track on their site can be sampled without downloading and they offer a money back guarantee. Another guarantee is that once you pay for a track you'll never have to pay again for it. they have all kinds of bonuses and incentives to use their service.
Amazon have free downloads and CD's and MP3 Music and over 13 million songs. They have all the popular artists and you can even download the Amazon. MP3 Music player for your PC for free. The fact that you can purchase CD's means that there is no argument about copyright infringement. So Once you have the CD home you can rip it to MP3 Music legally and put it away in the cupboard to stop it getting damaged, Anyway there is still some great stuff at Amazon and at amazingly good prices it's a place that I like to shop at.
To conclude I think we should all consider the ethics of cheap and free MP3 music and how we acquire that music. After all it comes down to you and your choice. The survival of your favourite artists will be determined by many small choices that you make as music lover in getting the sounds that you like to listen to. We all to one degree or another make our MP3 music purchases with passion. . . and budget.
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