Have We Stopped Music Piracy Now?

Music piracy used to be rife, it seemed like everyone was doing it, and there are still thousands if not millions of people who do download music for free, but was it really such a menace? Well when you discuss the problem with people they fall into three camps, you have the people who just don’t care either way, then you have the people who would never even think of doing it and are appalled that others do, finally you have the diehard downloaders who think it is their right to get music for free and that the artists earn too much money anyway.

Now first off then it is illegal to download music for free, it doesn’t matter what justifications and excuses people give, it is against the law and can get you into trouble. I think it is only that threat of legal problems that stopped the music industry being crushed by illegal downloads. People are right that the recording artists do earn countless millions from their songs, but that does not give anyone the right to steal that work without paying, no matter how much they earn. Anyone who believes that justification could argue it is ok to steal someone’s wallet just because they are rich.

I think that music piracy could have escalated into a huge problem if it wasn’t for two things, the music industry starting to take legal action against people, and legal download sites starting to emerge. Before the crackdown happened and cases started appearing in the media saying that some prolific downloaders had been prosecuted, then most people thought they could get away with it with no problems. I think those cases were a wakeup call to most people that you could be found and charged for doing it.

Meanwhile the legal download sites like iTunes had popped up and provided a real alternative that all the people scared by the high profile prosecutions could use. Before sites like iTunes then the only way to get music was to go to a shop, which could be a real pain, and I am sure that helped to fuel the illegal download culture, but once there was a legal way to get the same kind of convenience then the honest folks started to migrate to those.

That doesn’t mean the legal download sites have wiped out people downloading music for free, there will always be a group of people who like to beat the system and get a thrill out of it, but it certainly turned the tide and stopped new people getting sucked in. I don’t think it will ever be stamped out completely, there is no way to securely protect the music files, and too many legal loopholes that allow peer to peer software to continue being available.

Even though paying to download tracks is much cheaper than the price a CD used to be, then buying lots of tracks soon adds up. Another option is to join a subscription site like Napster.com, I am a member of that site, and for 7 – 8 dollars a month I get access to millions of tracks to listen to. I can’t download all the tracks (just 5 a month) but I can listen to them as much as I want, which is better for me because then I don’t waste money on tracks I get bored with the next week!

If you are buying a lot of music then you need to think about backing it up in case anything happens to your computer. A colorful way to backup is with a pink flash drive, find out more at PinkFlashDrive.com.