How I See It

From my point of view it is hard to decide on a certain standpoint in the issue of music piracy and online piracy in general. There are strong arguments for both sides but it is difficult to identify with one of them, as the statistics, surveys, estimations etc. may easily be manipulated to favor the side presenting them.

I do agree that one hand music pirating is viewed as stealing and misusing intellectual property of everybody involved in the creative process. Pirating music may even in some cases cause the artist to stop making music for insufficient financial resources (Miller 2012). There is also the potential to destroy the music industry for future, as there again might not be sufficient finance to support new and unknown artists. On the other hand, online music sharing, whether it is called “sharing” or “pirating” does not really matter, provides music producers with free, worldwide and self-maintaining advertising. Such advertising then leads to demand of touring, concerting and also merchandise, which naturally leads to increase of popularity of the artist as well as increase in sales.

The proponents of music piracy also manage to present a range of argument supporting their standpoint. One of those being the fact that music has always been passed around and made copies of, for example making audiocassette copies in the 70s, 80s and 90s, an that online “sharing” is just another more widespread way to do so (Miller 2012). Another reason for music sharing is increasing the popularity of new and unknown artists, even though the survey carried out by Bhattacharjee, Gopal and Sanders suggest that it is not the case (2003). The fact that many new artists do share their music online for free suggests that they are actually in favor of music sharing, seeing it again as advertising of their music itself. One of the recent arguments proposed by Thom Yorke (Radiohead) is the fact that music played on the radio is low quality music and is rather repetitive: “I think a lot of the time the reason people pirate, is they want access to good music. And they don't get it because the radio is so shit.” (2009).

Taking all the arguments into consideration, I am inclining more to the proponents’ point of view while still understanding the financial and legal issues of the situation. I consider music to be art and I think that art exists to be enjoyed and appreciated. I believe that music should be made in order to self-express and to evoke certain feelings in people. The artist should be looking forward to seeing a sold out stadium and putting on a show instead of looking forward to receiving a check afterwards.

We may worry about the future of music industry but without sharing and spreading music there would be none in the first place. And if the cost of having an access to quality music and having a free choice in music I want to listen to, is lowering the income of music production companies through music pirating then I am in favor of music piracy.

Bhattacharjee, Sudip, Ram D. Gopal, and Lawrence Sanders. "Digital Music and Online Sharing: Software Piracy 2.0?" Communications Of The ACM 46.7 (n.d.): 107-11. Web. 03 May 2014.

Miller, Michael. "Downloading Pirated Music: Pros and Cons." Que: Computing & Technology Books, Video, Articles for Home & Business. N.p., 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 02 May 2014.

Terr. "Musicians Speak Out On Music Piracy." UpVenue. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.