The effect on Album sales?

The year Apple's iTunes made downloading of certain songs an easy and legal process. By 2009 download sales of albums easily outpaced retail sales but its impact was still hard to judge. Even with download figures added in, album sales that year were way down from the year before

Artists can build or maintain a fan base through downloads without having to worry about physical albums being in stock at retail stores. But financially, artists may be not getting such a great deal. In 2009, popular artist Eminem sued his record label for extra royalties from downloads. According to the website Cult of Mac, at issue was how much an artist should get per download. The website said Eminem was getting 20 cents per 99-cent song and wanted 35 cents.

Technology impacts

Technological convergence- The digital age? Does this have an impact on illegal file sharing?

"A lot of this has to do with consumer freedom. We need to have a legal framework that supports consumer use rather than treat it as regrettable. We can't say that businesses should embrace technology but say to consumers they can't use technology for products they have paid for."

Many voices in the music industry have claimed that internet piracy has reduced

sales of legitimate CDs and that illegal MP3 downloads have become a substitute

for legal CD purchases.1 Indeed, many analysts believe that the current downturn

in CDs sales is due to the increasing and uncontrollable number of illegal copies

available using peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies.

Digital technology has implications throughout the entire spectrum of the music industry. Technology has changed everything from performances to record sales and has made recording and production more affordable and accessible. Promotion and publicity have been enhanced through advances in communication technology. The revolution of digital technology has--and will continue to--impact music in a variety of ways.
Implications of Digital Technology to Music | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6798576_implications-digital-technology-music.html#ixzz1XvU3Pm5W

Is illegal downloading damaging?

We know that illegal downloading has a detrimental effect on artists sales and the anger in causes in the music industry- it means that artists are not being paid for their professional work and therefore is causing great damage.Specifically, the creative industries have gone to great lengths to spell out the damage done by file-sharing copyright content without permission.

It says up to 800,000 jobs in the creative industries, out of 1.8 million in total, are threatened.

That's almost half of the entire industry which, the statement says, contributes £112.5bn in revenue to the economy, equivalent to 8% of GDP.

Around seven million people in the UK are involved in illegal downloads, costing the economy tens of billions of pounds- So, what is the solution? Is it possible to regulate this sector which the huge amounts of people that do it every single day?

The solution can be found on "How illegal downloading can be prevented" an article that intends to educates the general public and to prevent the widespread of downloading illegally.

Is youtube encouraging illegal file sharing?

This video is named "How to illegally download music, for free" in the description stating 'how to teach you'. Should youtube clamp down on this? are they portraying the image that this is okay and therefore spreading a negative false and against the law image? Additionally, this is not the only video that has been posted upon youtube.

The death of CD's?!

With cheaper methods of buying music whether it is illegal or not people are now starting to predict the death of CD's in the next 5 years, however how correct is this hypothesis?

Will CD's eventually die out? An NME writer johnny Davis found that up to six out of ten under 24 year olds believe physical formats will decline as people turn to digital methods.

This is very staggering as 85 percent place the reason they are downloading illegal or legal on the fact it will help save the planet- which is a much argued debate especially nowadays. With sea levels rising and renewable sources running out will CD's have a future? or will they just be scrapped?

Additionally with the rise of Youtube, 68 percent said they would rather buy a video than an audio download of a track if they were the same price- this has prompt video downloads to count towards the UK singles chart from january.

The IFPI said worldwide music market revenues shrank by 7% last year.This was blamed on falling CD sales, while the increase in digital sales failed to make up for this

According to the music industry, legal downloads have tripled during 2005.

In the first half of 2005, some 10 million songs have been legally downloaded.

There are several factors as well as piracy that effect the demand for CD's:

1. prices;

2. country-specific environment of the music industry, including offline commer-

cial piracy, taste for music, the distribution of income of potential users;

3. income and economic environment;

4. substitution with other media and other forms of entertainment; new distri-

bution channels; new media such as DVDs.

5. the “quality” of music.

An artists perspective

A recent poll suggested that more than almost 2/3 of illegal dowloaders would consider paying for tracks, but only if they were made cheaper.

However, what are the artists perspective on this matter? Surely they are the people that are effective the most with this outcome?

Lily Allen
Lily Allen actually launched a blog "It's not Alright" as a backlash that slammed illegal downloading and threw her support behind plans by the British Government to disconnect music pirates from internet. Mrs Allen, one of the minorities that have actually spoke out believe it is in their right to make a stop to this piracy, people need to take this matter seriously and be told the consequences. With illegal downloading becoming easier and all round priceless it has forced these supposed "fans" to stop paying for CD's and online mp3 songs via itunes and actually get their favourite artists' songs from Limewire. So, some may argue "How can you be a fan when your downloading there songs illegally?". This is a fair enough arguement, however 57% of people say that they are saving money this way whereas 27% put it down to the fact it is easy to access. With external factors such as the recession it has mean't that these die hard fans have had to look for alternatives despite their passion for an artist- What has happened to the Music Industry?! Consequently, this has forced artists to go out there and do gigs and concerts than release a new song that is going to be leaked out within seconds of placing on itunes. The shows the impact of change and the issues that arise within the music industry.

"Music piracy is stealing pure and simple. But then this is how society is used
to

Music Downloading and how it all started...

Music downloading is now a standard proceedure for teens and adults in society, if you asked an average teenage how to download a simple tune it is stated that 1 in 4 men admit that more than 50% of their music collection is made up of illegal downloads; therefore would be able to tell you within seconds (that simple!)

So, when exactly did the music downloading market boom?

Platforms of software launched and gained popularity and since then many site-based companies have immitated the illegal downloading. For example, take Limewire- Well known for file sharing including illegal music downloading. Limewire was launched in June 200 and Frostwire was developed in 2005. Both free to access and also download- Sounds good to me so far, however one problem, it is illegal. These softwares are one of many that save the hassell of legally downloading music and paying a high price- They do this via file sharing and converting music.

2000: LimeWire LaunchesThe site is launched by Mark Gorton, a former Wall Street trader with degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. Like many other P2P creators before and since, Gorton has long insisted that the existence of his site is well within the confines of the law.
2010: LimeWire ClosesThanks to a permanent injunction issued by a New York-based federal court, LimeWire becomes the latest P2P casualty.
http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/limewire-napster-the-pirate-bay-a-brief-history-of-file-sharing-20101027/

However, it's not just limewire that used to be accessable for downloading. You have Youtube converter, 4Shared, Pirate Bay- Most of these have the clues in the names!