On the Benefits of a Free Enterprise.
How many of us haven't experienced the benefits of today's computer technology and with its help obtained and downloaded music? It is convenient, cheap and probably the easiest way to find new music. We know downloading music is illegal and we don't seem to care very much about it. Using computers to download music and other arts is pragmatically as well as theoretically an open resource for millions of people. And an open entertainment industry is the best solution. I strongly believe that we have come to a time when music pirating has become so widely accepted that it must be legalized. Downloading music can therefore no longer be a violation of the legislation. Many up and coming artists are being out marketed by a few major acts which are supported by big record companies with enormous recourses available for their marketing and promotion of their product.
The music industry claims that it is loosing money on the peer-to-peer networking and has several times pressed charges against companies who are supporting it. It has been claimed that the recent downfall of record sales has been caused by the increment of pirated music. .
But the professionals behind the actual music, the musicians that is, aren't the ones who are loosing money. Out of a musicians annual income, for someone who writes music for film or TV series for example, is only an approximate 2-13 % made from record sales (according to Complete Guide to Film Scoring)- the rest is made up of regular fees and so called performance royalties is paid by TV stations. And touring bands are making their living by playing at clubs and by selling t-shirts and other merchandise (which can't be downloaded).
People (and musicians too, of course) have always been pirating music, vinyl albums have been taped to tape and so has CDs. Peer-to-peer networking has given us the opportunity to find even more music and this goes in the same way as any other IT technology - information and now also music has become more available.
