COM 125 Assignment 2 - Internet killed the radio star

(Let me start things off by saying real quickly that though I may not, perhaps, be the most qualified to talk about this particular topic, I would probably be the one who feels the effects of this most keenly - being a musician myself, whose music is pirated off the Internet.)

The Internet has come a long way in helping budding musicians peddle their wares to the masses as well as record companies. Gone are the days when analog cassettes and demo tapes were the way to go. Today, it's all about ProTools, Garageband, Ipod-dj-ing, and a whole plethora of handy computer tools that make music production the new after-class fad (Fact: Nowadays, you can make music by pressing just one button. True story.) With all this convenient technology at our fingertips though, there is that inescapable fact that you cannot have the good without some of the bad; piracy is especially rampant, when it comes to music.

There has been quite a bit of discussion about Digital Rights Management (DRM), and how it is a bid by both the record labels (the "big four": Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI) and music store owners (namely Apple, Microsoft and Sony) to protect music copyrights and intellectual property owned by music artistes. The sad truth though, is that DRM has not, and perhaps never will, halt music piracy. In fact, with a little bit of technical know-how, unlocking music protected by DRM software is really easy. This, coupled with the fact that on the average, only 3% of the music found in most Ipods is DRM-protected content, is a pretty big indication of one simple truth - DRM technology is really mostly just for show (Jobs, 2007).

What does this mean for content creators, or musicians then? Right now, with the digital age upon us, almost all forms of music have been digitized and can be found somewhere on the World Wide Web. Sites like youtube, myspace and imeem stream digital media for free, whilst bittorrent applications and other peer-to-peer software encourage the downloading and sharing of files, whether legally or illegally obtained. There is no escaping digital piracy no matter how you look at it, simply because the Internet is too vast a place to properly regulate and police. In fact, this extends to all forms of content, not just music - simply put, if you have any content at all on the Web, be it audio, video, or plain text; it is akin to putting it up in the public domain. Even if your content and intellectual property is protected by sites like COMPASS, piracy manages to somehow ignore all that, hiding behind the vast, sheer anonymity of the World Wide Web (my band's album, distributed by Universal Music, was leaked onto torrent servers in March this year).

How then can we accommodate both the interests of the public and that of content creators? To look at the problem from a more specific angle, how can we protect the interests of the public and the music industry? Given the current trends of how music is being obtained and exchanged today, the music industry is facing an unprecedented crisis and might possibly, collapse on itself in the near future if it doesn't adapt to the changes in consumer patterns (Kusek, 2009). This would only serve to limit the amount of new music being produced, which would be counter-productive for the public.

The solution I propose will not be able to halt piracy at all - I think it is very important to be able to accept that whatever the age, some form of piracy will always exist on the Internet due to its' public nature. However, it should be able to serve both the public interest as well as improve the condition of the ailing record industry.

The solution is two-fold: the first part involves educating the public, whilst the second part involves a restructuring of the record industry.

The public should be made aware that the music they download is unsustainable in the long run if the artistes who write them recieve no renumeration of any sort. Things like record sales help fund and encourage artistes to continue writing more music, and helps in the creation of more content. True, there are musicians who would produce music without hope of any form of income; but financially supporting these musicians, and supporting them via album sales rather than pirated downloads, helps promote and create a greater variety of content.

For record companies, I believe there has to be a change in focus. Record labels need to start promoting things that the Internet cannot hope to replicate. For example, the experience of being at a live show, in the flesh, rather than merchandise which can be digitized and put online for everyone to share.

Because though Copyrights still have their use from a commercial perspective, for the average individual, Copyrights are pretty much a thing of the past.

Jobs, S. (2007, February 6). Thoughts on Music. Apple. Retrieved September 24, 2009, from http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

Kusek, D. (2009, September 14). Music Industry - Change or Die. Future of Music. Retrieved September 24, 2009, from http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/2009/09/change-or-die/