Music Club Activity #1

[laynie.livejournal.com]

Hey Music Club Members! It's time to have a discussion/debate. It's no secret that in the past 5 or 6 years, the music industry has experienced a sharp downturn, mostly due to peer-to-peer file sharing programs such as Napster. The music industry's largest target market (teens and young adults) have turned to the internet for their music needs, where songs can be downloaded for free. After numerous lawsuits, programs such as ITunes have popped up...where songs can be purchased for a small fee. However, illegal music downloading still continues.

So here's the question: Do you think it's wrong to illegally download music, and why? Do you download any music, legally (ex. ITunes), or illegally (ex. peer-to-peer filesharing programs)?

Note: Everyone's opinions WILL be respected here. And there are good points to be made for both sides of this issue.

Brooke / Gryffindor

Comments

[skadi101.livejournal.com]

For a long time I haven't had a job and I just couldn't afford to pay $30 for each cd that my many favourite bands bring out. What I did was download one or two songs from a p2p program and then get the cd (for free) at the library and burn it to my pc. This didn't always work because some of the time the cd I wanted wasn't stocked by the library. So in those cases I would illegally download the album from a P2P network. In fact, just last night I downloaded an album from LimeWire. I've never used iTunes because I don't have a credit card, and I couldn't afford to buy the gift cards.

BUT, now that I've secured myself a part time job, I do plan on paying for my music. I'm all for supporting the smaller bands. But it will not stop me from using p2p. I'd be less inclined to buy the cd of a big band who is already worth millions, just on the principle of the thing.

No, I don't think it's wrong to illegally download music. It's unfair to charge as much as $30 for albums that sometimes only have 11 songs on them! Until record companies lower their prices, I think it's fair to say that file sharing will continue.

[rhowan-jane.livejournal.com]

But record companies will not have to lower their prices as long as people are downloading music illegally. Right now they can point at downloaded songs and say "that is money that we SHOULD have had". If people only downloaded the free and legal songs and did not purchase CDs they did not think were worth whatever the price, THEN companies would be forced to lower their prices.

It may not be fair to charge $30 for an album (you could always buy them used, though), but it IS legal. Copyright infringement is not.

Rhowan//Ravenclaw