The Right to Online Music Sharing

With artists putting out thousands of CD’s a day and making fifteen times that much, they’re in no financial debt when they’re buying 10 to 30 million dollar estates in the Hamptons or brand new $650,000 Bentleys which they drive once a month. In fact, the RIAA is actually pushing and shoving the music out to the public more than everyone else. Yeah right! When music stars such are making millions, and spending ‘mere’ thousands to make videos? Moreover, that’s excluding the money made from concerts and special appearances made around the world. The RIAA actually states that, “Music sales are already suffering from the impact… In the United Sates, sales are decreased by more than 10% in 2001. Without exposure, no one comes to shows, no one buys CD’s, no one enables you to earn a living doing what you love (“Ian”). Nevertheless, who’s to say that people weren’t actually sampling the songs and later going out to their local music store to buy the CD? In addition, what if the music is no longer available, or it wasn’t available on CD if they did not have a record player? What if they only like one of a bands hit songs, or they need to use a song for a class project, should they have to buy the full CD at $15 a piece? These people should have the right to go online to a sharing program and download it, just for that one use, especially if that certain artist isn’t well known, or they’re an ‘underground artist’. They spend so much time and money fighting it when they could help support it, by making it more available, for maybe the sales in the industry wouldn’t decline as much if they knew that the Industry isn’t so against this, they’d actually be willing to buy some CD’s. ” (Gruenwedel & Garrity 8) The sales decrease probably had nothing to do with the sharing of music files online. If there is a major artist who wants a single released to the world by putting it on their website, they will not be able to, especially if the RIAA gets what they want. For if you were given the choice, would you like to buy a CD with maybe 2 good songs on it for $15, or download them for free, saving your money for a CD that will be worth that money?

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With these amazing technological advances, the music industry should be uplifted with joy. he RIAA isn’t having any success shutting others down, for they spend too much money and time on only one of them, Napster (“Bootlegger’s”). Janis Ian said, “The Internet, and downloading, are here to stay… Anyone who thinks otherwise should prepare themselves to end up on the slagheap of history. Instead, they’re more worried about stopping it than helping it along. Consumers will possibly think, why should I continue to assist them by buying CD’s? Some artists believe that if they choose to make songs available to the public, that they will be more likely to buy their CD’s, however this usually isn’t true.