Are YOU Ruining The Music Industry?

By Suzanne Fitzpatrick

Nov 2009

Are you one of the people ruining the music business? If your aged between 15 and 50, you probably are. It's hard to find someone who hasn't downloaded music online and without paying for it, whether it's from Limewire, BearShare, Pirate Bay or any others on the long list of programs.

File-sharing is still a relatively new experience but becomes more controversial by the day. So many people don't seem to realize the harm in downloading music without paying a cent. I, on the other hand, think it's the slow but sure way to destroying the music industry. On my side of the argument is this; If you went into a shop and didn't pay for something, it's stealing. It's illegal. So why is that so many people have absolutely no problem with file-sharing? You havn't paid for it; you are essentially stealing music, or film, whatever your'e taking. You wouldn't walk into HMV, pick up a few CD's and walk out.

Artists sell records as a job, as a source of income. The same way as bakeries sell bread. You buy a product you want, they gain from it,they put part of that money into making the next product and the other part as profit for their effort. Same as most jobs. It's fair enough.

The opposing argument is this; these artists have so much money as it is so why would they miss the bit spent on file-sharing? They should be happy with us appreciating their music without thinking of money, like true musicians. Others have the opinion that they'll download a few songs of an artist they don't know that much about yet and then if they like what they hear, they'll pay for the album. I used to have this approach as well. Kind of a way of convincing yourself you were in someway right and moral, even though the artist being typed into the keyboard would probably be wagging their finger at you.

This seems logical but really isn't.

File-sharing took off in 1999 when Napster went mainstream and from then has just kept taking over until the point where it's now trying to be made illegal. Probably on of the biggest and most recent turns with this, concerning the media was earlier this year when Lily Allen released a blog online saying how much she opposed file-sharing. She recognized it for what it really is, as "music piracy", that was turning the British music industry into "nothing but puppets paid for by Simon Cowell" as it made it "harder and harder for new acts to emerge".

I think this is absolutely true. Think about it, all bands have to start somewhere, whether your'e 'that band' who plays in the local every Friday night or Kings Of Leon playing 3 or 4 stadiums a week. If your'e just starting out, imagine how frustrating it would be seeing sales of your debut single or album going nowhere because the few, vital people that had heard of you had downloaded your song for free. The band gets no recognition and will continue to be off-the-radar until people start paying. Lily Allen points out that “You don't start out in music with the Ferraris. Instead you get a huge debt from your record company,  which you spend years working your arse off to repay.” This is where record sales come in.

Plus, when you look at it from that point of view you think that yes, a lot of artists do make a good clump of cash out of sales, but a lot of it doesn't go to them. Like a bakery buying more flour and playing off electricity bills, a strong dose of the sales profit goes into paying off producers, advertising, publicity and all the rest.

I think it also seems like us music lovers are having less and less control over the industry and how it's run, what gets through, what doesn't. At the end of the day, it's the audience's opinion that counts and none of that is getting recognized when songs and albums are being quietly and freely shared.

I remember first hearing about what Lily was saying about the whole thing and thinking 'finally, someone's going to try and do something about it'. There's been a few technological schemes taht have been brought in to try and stop people using the sites. Eircom made a deal with Sony BMG and Universal Music, the three-strikes-and-your'e-out policy. This means that Eircom broadband customers are now automatically monitored by IP addressess and anyone caught downloading illegally three times will have their connection cut off. I say it's great that they tried, but I also say that no matter what secret analysing method they come up with; as long as there are nerds, there will be ways around any kind of anti-file-sharing software.

As of September 2009, Lily is hoping to arrange a summit with various record companies, artists, producers as well as the host of musicians she hooked to campaign the message with her; people like Matt Bellamy of Muse, Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet and Take That's Gary Barlow. Barlow, who runs a record label of his own, also pointed out how file-sharing is making things difficult for new bands, saying how he spends so much of his spare time helping up and coming artists find their way so is fully aware of all the issues.

I don't know about other people, but I love buying an actual CD, which already seem old-fashioned with online downloading both legal and illegal. When I buy music online, I don't feel like I'm getting the whole package. I love flicking through booklets and the artwork etc.

In my opinion the way forward is to set up more licensed, online music stores such as iTunes with low prices for even the newest of records. Yes, selling at low prices (which they already are on iTunes and HMV.com, in my view) will reduce revenue for artists, but it's that or nothing. As cliched as it sounds the internet is the future, and various industries have had to advance to keep up with it as a competitor. The music business has kind of lost track I think. People will always download, that won't stop, but I believe they would be willing to pay some low price.

And even though it's not as much, low profit is better than no profit. Think of that band down in you local.