Illegal Downloading; What to do?

According to Fox news a report in the business section discusses the financial hardship and issues that evolve around online piracy and illegally downloading. Despite the Industry’s efforts to sue those who illegally download and the small success it has gained through prosecuting the guilty. The lawsuits do not stop the growing illegalities and “ripped- off royalties” spurned from the lack of CD sales. Free “illegal” music is a major issue for an industry that is to constantly trying to increase profits from legal downloads to make up for falling sales of compact discs, “which declined 23 percent globally between 2000 to 2006”.

To give an example – or rather depict a picture of the problem it was stated in the report that Eric Garland of Web consultants Big Champagne estimated that more than 1 billion digital tracks are illegally traded for free each month. A shocking number when considering than the Apple iTunes store- presently holding 70% of legal music sales in the US, has sold a only a few more than 2 billion songs since its creation in 2003. People blame this growing problem on the younger generation, my generation; the peer- to- peer generation of networks that allow free digital exchange over the internet.

The fact is – my generation – doesn’t see it as a problem for themselves; rather they view it as ideal, they receive and share music - what a deal right? Wrong- for the record industry, it is a major deal breaker and they are feeling the loss the pain financially. Even though some say since the lawsuits P2P and file sharing has decreased significantly, but will continue only to grow. In my opinion, when there is a will there is a way- and listeners will find a way to keep their free music. Russ Crupnick, an analyst at consumer research group NPD, said the number of U.S. households engaged in P2P over the last year rose 7 percent, while the number of illegal downloads were up by 24 percent. "P2P remains an unacceptable problem," said Mitch Bainwol, president of the Recoding Industry Association of America. "The folks engaged in the practice are doing more of it." I don’t see how companies will stop people seeking illegal downloads – when someone has tasted something that they like…. It is hard to keep them away from it - especially in such a growing digital world and a seemingly infinite web of listeners. Music is a touchy subject – it used to be controlled by the companies – even the companies had a say in the artist’s situate. Now the companies will have to listen to the listeners- because they seem to be forcing and imposing a newfound “demand power pull” on the labels.