Why Most Artists Profit from Piracy

I recently wrote a research paper on the subject of Internet piracy, so whenever I see an article such as this, I think a lot about it. This article has many good points such as the fact that with online file sharing, people have the opportunity to discover new types of music, and new artists. Because people can discover less popular artists, they can spend money on merchandise and concerts, where the artists get most of their money. It also mentions that while the RIAA reports that album sales are falling, it could be caused partly buy the increasing online distributors of legal music, such as the iTunes Store. These online distributors of music allow people to decide what songs they want off an album, giving them an incentive to buy the music if they believe they should not have to pay such a steep price for music, even if it is ridden with DRM.

Some points that I want to raise, from my paper, include the fact that CD sales are decreasing because sellers are starting to charge people a lot per album. Also, many people who pirate music off of the Internet would not be buying the music that they are pirating, so the music industry is not actually losing sales. While people are downloading music, it is increasing incredibly valuable exposure to the artist, which is the key to becoming successful. People also pirate songs because they believe they are spiting the record companies, that are already rich, and don’t give any respect to the artists. Record companies don’t allow the artists to hold the copyright over there music, and don’t allow the artists to distribute their music at their will, or now allowing them to create exposure for themselves, by themselves.

Basically, artists just need to learn to use Internet piracy to their advantage, and have their record companies allow them too.