With the increased use of the internet in years past and years to come there has been an increase in digital piracy in the music industry.  The music industry is perhaps one of the most influenced industries affected by digital piracy.  The popularity of digital piracy in the music industry has increased drastically because music is now really easy to access.  Before the age of the internet, in order to get new music a person would have to go to a store and buy a physical copy (i.e. CD or Tape).  Today, a person can simply buy a copy of a particular album with just the click of a button.  Online services such as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and rhapsody allow users to purchase new music in seconds.

With the shift of many musical artists distributing their music online rather than physically, there has been a drastic increase in digital piracy.  One person can buy a digital copy of music from an online source, and in turn post it online for anyone to download it for free. Popular music download websites that are currently in use are called Hulk share, 4shared, and pirate bay. These websites allow users to pirate music.  Music pirating is so advanced today that the general public can download the music before the distributing company sells its first copy. 

Digital piracy has affected the economy of the music industry.  The industry loses money due to piracy and causes the industry not to be as profitable as it could.  Some musical artist have attempted to slow down digital piracy but it will be nearly impossible to completely stop it.  Artist and distributing company are currently trying to find new ways to distribute music in order to halt digital piracy.  This will be a daunting challenge to the industry but with lots of research and experimenting they will find a way to end it.

Written by:

Malik Lewis

Digital Piracy Concerning Music Industry

Most people have some music they love to listen to in their free time or just in the flow of their day. Fortunately for us we can have any type of music on the go wherever we go, but with this technological advancement of portable music comes different options of receiving the music. Most people digitally get their music so they can have it on their IPod or IPhone, which brings up a problem concerning digital piracy.  How much do you think digital piracy is affecting the music industry? How can information systems discourage the behavior of stealing music online? These two questions raise a lot of good debates. I’m not so sure if there is one correct answer. It seems that music artist are not discourage from getting into the music industry as a career. Countless times I interact with people who express how they do not and will not pay for music when they can have it for free on the internet. Other times I come across people who always buy music whether it’s from ITunes or Amazon. Just from looking at the culture today it seems as if there are more people downloading instead of paying. When we consider popularity I can’t say that digital piracy is affecting the music industry at all. Artists are definitely getting the notoriety from the work they create. On the other hand artists might be losing out on some money from record sells and purchases online. Digital piracy is very prevalent in America because of how easy it is to be a pirate on the Internet even though the existence of the copyright. Although digital piracy is prevalent, Apple’s ITunes has really helped with the problem of digital piracy concerning music downloading online. Not only do people love the IPhone they also love buying music in ITunes because it is such an easy and reliable system. Is ITunes a information system that can solve the problem of digital piracy concerning online downloaded music? ITunes is certainly a success when it comes to paying for digital music or digital art. Digital piracy is a topic that will always deserve a serious debate especially in a age where everything is going digital.

Written by:

Braxton Ogbueze