 The advent
of digital music has made music more accessible for everyone, around
the globe, across age and society barriers. Now, whether you are in
Japan looking for the latest American rock music or you are in Norway
looking for South African hip-hop of the apartheid era. Any and all
kinds of music can be downloaded from the internet – anytime,
anywhere.
However, this is not without its pitfalls. Far from this proliferation
being a boon for the music industry, digital music has managed to give
them the hardest of times ever. The internet revolution has also bred
music piracy at an alarming scale. There are umpteen websites and file
sharing networks where you can find music downloads for free, or for
very low subscriptions. Practically all the music on offer on such
portals or networks is copyright protected – rights that they
do not honor.
Naturally, the availability of anything for free or for cheap attracts
millions of people. Most of these people would listen to the same music
even without piracy, but would have to pay for it. Obviously, the
artistes, the studios, and all the music industry are losing out on
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of genuine revenue, every year.
It is no different from theft.
Besides, most of the music that you get from such websites is in
low-quality formats, often with scratchy or high-pitched sound. Many
websites also overlay the music with their own advertisements.
What’s worse than all of it is the ever-present threat of
viruses and spyware being loaded onto your system, along with your
music download. So, you could actually end up harming your computer or
leaking sensitive data from it, while all you tried to do was listen to
some of your favorite music.
This is not to say that all digital music is stolen. There are a large
number of websites and networks that also give you music for download,
genuinely. These websites and networks usually enter agreements with
music publishing companies, to sell and / or broadcast their music over
the internet, and pay either a fixed fee or a royalty per sale.
There is also music that is available under ‘Creative
Commons’ or other such free licenses. The latter is available
free. In fact, it is supposed not to be charged for. However,
practically all major artistes and labels do not release work under
such license.
Different websites charge you for the music in different ways. Some
charge a fixed fee for unlimited downloads, some sell complete albums,
while most also offer pay-per-track downloads. Most websites also
charge a small subscription / membership fee regardless of the payment
pattern for actually downloading the music.
Paying for your music does not only satisfy your conscience, it also
gets you value. Usually, you get album art, unreleased versions of
tracks, lyrics etc along with the tracks. Also, the music is always in
a very high quality format and recording. That means you also enjoy
your music to the fullest. |
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