Essay

How Music Downloading is affecting CD sales

Throughout the world people from all ages are exploiting the music industry by downloading songs illegally from file sharing programs and systems. The main argument at hand is the simplicity of downloading a 4 minute song for free, as opposed to purchasing a $25 CD. All countries throughout today’s society are guilty of illegally downloading music from p2p file sharing systems like Kazaa, Bearshare, Limewire and Imesh. The cost difference involved with obtaining music and downloading music defines the current situation and demonstrates the accessibility of the two. Music store universally are suffering in revenue and productivity, due to advancements in connection speed, which is allowing for more downloads at a quicker speed. Finally artists and music producers are also affected from pirated music and the music industry is looking at new methods to rectify the current situation.

The current situation of downloading music illegally is increasing as countries are evolving digitally and people of all ages are becoming computer savvy. An article by Bruce Einhorn 2007 states that, China has become the world capital of pirated music and Almost 100% of the world’s music downloaded from the Net is stolen. With this in mind the ranking of downloaded music by country is as follows, Asia, America, Europe, Africa then Australia. Jesse Harlin 2007 in his article explains that, with the rise in pirated music, labels these days are more interested than ever in finding additional revenue streams to help off-set slumping sales.
The Chart below is a perfect demonstration of the current download vs. CD crises.

http://www.bridgeratings.com/Images/Music%20Media%20Purchase%20Trending.png


The Chart above is a general overview of the world’s music industry as a whole.
The chart shows a distinct decrease in CD sales since downloading music became available in 2000 and a trend showing an increase in online downloading. This summarises the current situation and depicts the vision of things to come.
The cost difference between downloading a 4 minute song form the internet as opposed to purchasing a $25 CD is disappointing. The costs involved with downloading music consist of actually owning a computer and a connection to the internet (pay per month), which I currently pay $60 for unlimited downloads with cable. It’s free to download the programs like kazaa and Bearshare, which allow for the actual file searching and sharing. Kazaa can be downloaded from this website http://www.kazaa.com/us/index.htm. The costs of purchasing a CD is currently around $25 give or take depending on the artists, number of tracks and fluctuation. The reality at hand is, for the same price of 3 CD’s I can purchase the internet for a month and download thousands of songs from various artists. The website http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/music_downloading.asp describes that, for many people it is as simple as opening one of many peer-to-peer file share programs, selecting the tracks, downloading and burning to a CD-ROM. This summarises the ease of downloading music and also the cost variations.


Music stores and companies are suffering due to the increase in music downloading. Statistics show a decrease in staff internationally and furthermore a drop off in CD advertising both on the radio and television. An article from the website http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2006-03-14/spector-cdextinction states that, the CD just doesn’t have the cool factor that it once did and that within five years were going to see a much lower level of CD purchasers. This demonstrates the old fashion enjoyment of buying a CD and describes what’s to come. Lee Marshall 2004 states how, it’s hard to understand how the consumption of pirated music affects the music industry and the actual affect it has on artists and companies; though I’m guessing is severe. The actual cost of producing a CD has dropped over the last 10 years due to lack of demand and popularity of sales. The actual music stores that were once purely CD’s, have consolidated into other areas like DVD’s and some electronic equipment. This is due to lack of CD sales and low demand.


The emphasis on p2p file sharing programs has risen over the last 8 years. Back in the late 90’s and early 00’s p2p file sharing wasn’t common and really only consisted of Napster, which was used predominantly for music. These days’ p2p file sharing programs allow users to download music, movies, games, pictures and also software. Since Napsters official launch in 1999 many p2p file sharing agents have become apparent and easily accessible internationally. An article from the AAP General News 2005 states that, some of the biggest names in Australian music have backed a court ruling against the owners of music file-sharing technology Kazaa, which is used to download pirated music, depriving artists of their royalties. An article by Joelle Tessler 2005 states that the, US Supreme Court determined that Internet file-sharing companies can be held liable for copyright infringement if they encourage use of their software to trade pirated music and movies. Overall the current p2p file sharing programs and companies are killing the CD industry, though can be held responsible for infringements on copyrights.





In conclusion I would like to reiterate how downloaded music is affecting CD sales. http://www.betanews.com/article/Digital_music_downloads_wont_replace_CDs_says_report/1195502891, this website states how, sales of music CDs are continuing to decline annually at double-digit rates and also that downloads of digital music are increasing. Kathy Ishizuka 2004 states that, there is a number of reasons for illegal downloading, from not having the money to pay for software (51 percent) to the rationale that lots of people do it (33 percent). Currently, nearly all countries are guilty of downloading music illegally. The cost difference between purchasing a CD and downloading a song is bias. Music stores, artists and companies are affected with this increase in downloaded and will continue to be. Overall the current situation is defiantly favoring downloaded music and will continue as the internet advances and more people obtain access.