In the 21st century, purchasing music has simply became an option, due to the rise of technological advancements. For instance, software such as BitTorrent allow online users to download music, video, games and lots of other incredible things to their hearts content, all you need is connection to the Internet. It is true, however, that iTunes, Amazon etc allow you to do the same thing, the only difference is the money. A user of BitTorrent can simple go onto their computer, open up the software, and download an album, and most of the time, even get the album a week earlier to the official release. A user of iTunes will have to wait, most of the time for a midnight release of an album, and also in American time format, that's waiting until 6am to download the same album the BitTorrent user has just downloaded a week prior to official release, and with no cost. Once looked upon like that, it seems the advantages of illegally pirating music are just too good to be true.
Around ten years ago, Metallica, attempted to shut down online phenomenon 'Napster' for breaching copyright terms, and distributing songs by Metallica and many other musical artists work illegally. This was worldwide news at the time and sparked a debate upon wether or not people should be allowed to perform such acts. Personally, I think Metallica had a rght to make a stand, as it is illegal and causes a lot of money that could be made to simply disappear. Realistically, online piracy will always happen. All you need is one person to buy an album, share it on the Internet and within minutes millions of people will now have the album in their computer. Give it another week and by then that figure will be small in comparison. This proves it is simply impossible to stop online piracy of music, and most musicians tolerate this fact and accept it. In 2007 radiohead released the album in rainbows as a download via a pay what you want model. Many artists have also then released their albums in this way, this just goes to show that online piracy has been accepted by some musicians.
Lets just say that for instance my favourite musician is lil Wayne. I would pay for convert tickets buy merchandise and listen to his music every day, however all of this music has been pirated. I do not condone this behaviour, but for some reason I continue to do it. Every day. In an ideal world were money rains from the sky, then yes I would purchase music. But everybody on the planet has at one point or another downloaded music illegally. It just costs too much. 8.99 for an album with twelve tracks is just not worth it, unless it is a masterpiece, which bring me to my next point. I won few Physichal copies of musicians work but the few I do own are in my opinion classic. The albums I have deemed worthy to purchase as I appreciate it that much, for example Illmatic by Nas, Ready To Die by Notorious BIG etc. sadly for some music artists who don't receive this flattering compliment from myself and billions of others, it can be tough.
Imagine a not very well known musicin, dj Dillon Francis perhaps. He has just released a new album costing the usual retailed price of around ten pounds. Do I go onto iTunes and spend hard Ernest money on an album I know little about...I think the answe I am getting at is rather obvious. An is what 99 percent of the world do. I would go on BitTorrent, download the album and personally review it. If deemed worthy enough, I will then put it on my iPhone and appreciate the music, if not...recycle bin, you know the drill.
In some circumstances, such as vinyl copies, they can be very prestigious and provide a much more beautiful sound than in comparison to listening to the music digitally or on a cd. I will acknowledge that you will never be able to digitally download an album with as beauiful a sound as a vinyl , so in that case money well spent. And paying for concerts to enjoy your favourite musicians live can be some of the most enjoyable moments of your life. This also proves that money spent on music can go somewhere.
To conclude this argument, I am definitely guilty of pirating music and have no problem in doing so, but do udersgand that if put in a musicians shoes and witnessing my hard work being distributed so carelessly, I would be annoyed. I can take comfort in the fact that I a small decimal of the overall percentage of people who illegally download music, I still have morals and apreciate the music, I just don't find it worth the money and effort, and in suing that I believe I am speaking on behalf of billions of people in this world today. We are all guilty
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