How can two hundred million people worldwide be wrong? Fifty million Americans are illegally file-sharing billions of songs on the Internet daily. Consequently, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) blames the ten percent decline in record sales due to those downloads. Nevertheless, there are many reasons contributing to the decline of sales. Since September 11, 2001 the economy has been in shambles. Second, the prices of CDs went up throughout the years 1991-1999. Lastly, the RIAA are marketing to young adults with fixed allowances instead of older adults. In fact, statistics show advances in technology increase consumer spending. For example, Daniel Bedingfield has had the top three song on the radio "Gotta Get Thru This" for several months. However, his music was not being circulated on the Internet. Therefore, his album lasted on the Billboard 200, less than a month. Eminem's "The Eminem Show" was the most downloaded album of the year as well as The Best Selling Album of 2002. When people share, more music is sold. The mutli-platinum rapper 50 Cent supports this theory, "I believe word of mouth is just gonna generate more sales .". Now, consumers are creating their own "radios". Yet, many will say "What about the musicians" royalties?" I can simply state a musician makes more money from tours, appearances, and endorsements than record sale royalties. Furthermore, the musician is in a good place financially to be worried about losses. My solution to this current dilemma is to make the innovative technology beneficial to the record labels. File-sharing should be accepted as a promotional tool. It pressures the musician's creativity to create better quality songs because consumers now can hear the album before it is released in stores. In conclusion, the RIAA should not be suing file-sharers but rather embrace the new technology we have and use it to their advantage. .
