Music industry and the Web piracy

Photo Credit: Cristiana Ferrauti

Kane Robinson and Richard Graham have been jailed on the twelve of November for illegally upload songs, sometimes even before their official release.

The links to the thousands of tracks distributed were available on a forum called Dancing Jesus. Since 2006, more than seventy millions of members used this public space for free downloads, according to The Guardian.

The case has once again raised the issue about free content available on the Web.

Statistics and data may confirm that the online markets are continuously expanding, along with the numerous threats from the greater availability of its contents.

The Office of National Statistics released an Internetaccess bulletin on 7 August this year.
In the document, it has been said that 76% of British adults, in 2014, are able to access to the Web every day. The percentage is far higher than the data collected eight years ago, when nearly half of the people were out of the amount.

During February 2013, Apple announced that over twenty-five billions of songs were purchased via the online store iTunes, whose catalogue is accessible from 119 countries.

According to the Recording Industry Association ofAmerica (RIAA) – trade organization which supports the main recording companies in the USA -, music sales decreased of half their profits comparing the years 1999 and 2013.

America suffered enormously Web piracy - a crime which allowed the illegal download of nearly 30 billion songs from 2004 to 2009.

Photo Credit: Elias Bizannes https://www.flickr.com/photos/liako/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode

Copyright is the form of monetization for the intellectual properties in the western societies.

The high prices of immaterial element on the Web are determined not only by the industries’ profits, but also – and more importantly – by the artists’ rewards.

Consequently, piracy, in addition to the legal matters, is a concern also for the possible unpaid job of the performers.

“From the artist’s point of view - said Kienda Hoji, Principal Lecturer in Music and Business at the University of Westminster - the idea is you are paid for what you do".

"Second to this - he continued -, if you make music, and you sell it, people use it. And this only can constitutes the reason why somebody should pay you: for the right to receive what is, after all, the result of your hard work.
"[…] However, it would be silly not to realize that money is not easy to get. […] So is a double edge: you don’t pay for music, then you don’t reward the artist, and then he is not in the position to make music. It is a problem”.

The Web has made it easier to access to more media contents.

Many sellers adapted their markets to reach the customers and to meet the new needs of the audience.

Nevertheless, for what regards the music industry, the dematerialization of the products seems to have risen an endless debate for the payment of non-physical items.