Music piracy has the ability to harm the music industry by taking away revenue, but also help the industry by giving artists exposure

The internet is a vastly growing place, where people from all over the world can connect and interact. This allows for many thought, ideas, and even music to be shared all over the world. This is heavily impacting the music industry.

The internet has created this place where music can be shared instantly and millions of people can access it. It has also given people the ability to illegally pirate music, and get music you typically pay for, for free. Pirating music is an easy and free way for people to download music. This plays a huge role in modern music.

Piracy has the ability to both help and hurt the music industry. Piracy tends to harm the industry by taking away extra revenue that pays the artists, however, it also gives the artist more exposure, and allows for their content to reach a broader audience.

Piracy harms the music industry by taking away money from the artist

The immediately noticeable thing that piracy does is strip money from the artist. A product that you typically pay for, you are now taking for free. The money that you would normally give the artist to listen to and have their album, you are getting for free. This heavily removes a large profit the artist would make off of their record.

The RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, discusses how piracy has cost the music industry jobs and money. The RIAA says that piracy has cost the music industry 12.5 billion dollars, and over 70,000 jobs have been lost.

If an artist solely makes all of their money from their recorded albums, then their means of income is being stripped from them. Piracy is making them spend their time and energy to be rewarded with people stealing their content. Artists work hard to produce their music, and piracy is, in a sense, making them work for free.

The total revenue from recorded sales of the music industry has steadily dropped over the past few years. This chart shows how much of a decrease in recorded sales the industry has suffered. This is all happening as the internet is becoming popular, and people are effectively pirating music. This downward slope of revenue loss is happening right as pirating music is becoming more popular, which leads people to believe that pirating has caused a huge loss for the recording industry.

Patrick Warfield, an Associate professor of Music at the University of Maryland, College Park, briefly discusses how piracy is harming the creative aspects of the music industry.

Patrick Warfield discusses how piracy is a reason for less creativity in the industry. It becomes more expensive and difficult to hire great producers, which limits the creativity that could be achieved with better producers and musicians.

Piracy positively effects the music industry by giving more artists much exposure

Piracy is completely free. The user doesn't pay anything to download and listen to the music that they are getting. This often leads people to listen to newer things. If something is free, people are more likely to capitalize on it, and take advantage of it, over if they had to pay for it.

Since people are getting the music for free, they can reach out and experience a broader range of artists instead of spending money on an album and hoping that they like it. Piracy allows users to get a listen as to what the artist is offering.

If the user really enjoys the content that they are provided with, they may go out and purchase that album. Piracy gives users the opportunity to sample music, and get a listen as to what the music is, and then make a decision as to whether or not they should spend their money on the content.

Many people argue that piracy isn't actually harming the music industry at all. A study was conducted that concluded that music piracy does not displace legal music purchases, and there is unlikely to be much harm done on music revenues.

A lot of the people that pirate music, either won't purchase the music at all even if they couldn't get it for free, or they would use the content that they got for free to in turn support the artist, by buying the album or supporting the artist in other ways.

Many people who do pirate, but don't buy the album will often contribute to the artist in other ways such as attending the artists concerts, or buying merchandise from the artist.

The chart from earlier shows that that has been happening. The chart shows that recorded music sales have dropped, however, concert revenue has vastly increased. Piracy can open the doors for people to hear about artists, and then, in turn, they spend their money, instead of on an album, but on attending a concert.

The chart also shows that total music sales have not dropped very much. The recorded music revenue has decreased, however, the total music revenue hasn't changed much in the last decade.

Patrick Warfield feels that piracy isn't the answer to increasing exposure for artists. He argues that there are perfectly legal ways to give an artist exposure, that doesn't involve illegal pirating of music.

Mr. Warfield discusses how even though an artist can get their music exposed relatively easily through the internet, it is still difficult for the artist to make money just from touring and performing concerts. Mr. Warfield also mentions alternatives to piracy that still allow users to access the content for free, while remaining legal. Soundcloud is a very effective tool for users to get a sample of music before making a purchase on an album, just like piracy can do.

The future and advancement of technology cannot prevent piracy

Piracy is a very controversial topic in the music industry. Many people believe it is harming the industry, while many others think it is helping. New programs and tools are being developed to give users free content, to try and stop people from pirating.

I do not think that these legal methods, and advancing technology can stop piracy. I believe that piracy will always be around, and there will still be free ways to get music. Industries can try and create new ways to prevent piracy, like new coding that stops users from accessing and sharing the content, however, I think that people will always find a way around it. No matter what companies try to do, somebody will always find a way to bypass their security measures and spread content for free.

Free websites and programs like soundcloud and spotify can help deter some people from pirating music, by giving them a free legal way of obtaining music, but I don't think it's enough to stop piracy all together. It may stop some people, but there will always be people who want to own the content, and won't separate themselves from piracy.

Mr. Warfield discusses how the record industry adapts to newer technology. The record industry develops a way to use newer technology in a very successful way, but they do it fairly slow. He also goes on to discuss what he thinks the future advancement of technology holds in store for the music industry.

Music piracy is all in the users hands. Nobody can prevent or encourage piracy other than the user. Piracy has its positive and negative effects to the music industry. It is up to you to decide whether to partake in it or not.

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