The Impact Of Piracy On The Music Industry: Issues And Solutions

The Rise of Digital Downloading

Question:

Discuss About The People Associated With The Music Industry?

In the past decades, with the rise of internet technology the downloading of the music is becoming major concern for the people associated with the music industry. “The digital downloading of the songs is becoming the preferred area of the user” (Easley, 2010). From the research it has been analysed that, 90% of music available on the internet is not paid which is illegal. The internet is serving the role of the interface between user and the music industry. It is an illegal activity of sharing copyright material on the internet. “There are various software tools available on the internet which makes the downloading of the music from the internet such as Napster, Limewire, WinMX, and acquisition” (Hardy, 2015). The practice of downloading the illegal music from the internet is adversely affected the growth of music industry. The evolution of social networking site has completely changed the scenario of sharing digital file over the network, The Music companies have to take step forward to overcome such a situation by reshaping their business operations, dramatic transformation and distribution of music, and measuring of consumption in relation with demand and supply to know the actual cause of illegal distribution of music. The digital sale of the music is increasing tremendously. The music industry is facing the problem of piracy from several years. The problem of piracy is getting boom with the inclusion of internet associated with the distribution of pirated music over the internet channels. There are some ethical issues which are associated with the innovation of innovation with respect to threatening and music piracy. It has been seen that there are some difficulties associated with the associated with the innovation. The sharing of music albums should be reduced on the internet. The step should be taken to make people aware that they should pay money for downloading the music from the internet. The illegal music should not be opt by the people. The problem of piracy is getting increased with the development of internet technologies and innovation. The emerging marketing of internet increases the threat of piracy on the music industry. The musicians are not getting valuable money for their inner talent. The ethical consideration should be given on illegal downloading of the music from the internet. The area of concern is the increasing growth of the internet and which allows free downloading of the music album. The rate of piracy is getting ridiculously increased.  The ethical standards and handling procedures should be used to stop the piracy of the music album to the large extent. There are different forms of music piracy which are classified as internet piracy and compact disc piracy. The availability of the digital products is on the negligible cost paid by the user.

The Negative Effect of Piracy on the Music Industry

The buying and selling of the digital music on the internet is getting boom from last two decades. It has been seen that if the person is not getting pirated music on the internet, he will not buy that album and start searching for the other pirated one. “The illegal downloading of the music increases indirect sale of the music” (Wuest, 2013). The music industry is affected by the illegal downloading of music. The moral and legal structure should be built for the user to stop downloading of pirated songs. The music artist are not able to sustain in the music field for the longer time because the piracy is having an adverse effect on the growth of the music artist. The feeling of the musician is getting hurt. The user are becoming sting to the violation of copyright. The non-availability of the copyright music changes the mood of listening music. He will start looking for the copyright music which are freely available on the internet. The paid downloads should be used for purchasing of the song through internet. The low quality of the music files can be resolved by purchasing the original copy of the music. The talent of the musicians are getting adversely affected because if they are not giving permission to make copyright of their music, the sale of the album goes on declining. They are not able to earn the livelihood from their music album. “The social media plays a major role in downloading of the music and declination of the music industry” (Sikka, 2013). In today’s era, the success of the music depends on the cultural impact associated with the social media platform and communication between different participating units. The musician should make communication with the right person who is using their music by paying the amount. The distribution of the music can be initiated. The work of the musician is getting hurt. The file sharing of the music is going on large scale. The digital downloads of the music continues loss of the sale. “The downloading of music is provided with the illegal sites and services” (Raman, 2014). The adverse effect can be seen with the flourishing of musical file sharing.

From the research and survey, we evaluated that there are seven issues which are associated with the music album piracy. The various channels are used for downloading of music without paying a single penny to the music industry. “The fact and figures are collected for illustrating the impact of using internet on increasing the sale of music business, use of case study, interviews, and questionnaires” (Aguiar, 2016). The economic growth of the music industry is declining with the file sharing process on the internet. It has been researched that the purchasing of the music album is limited due to the availability of the music album of the web services without any hindrance. Some key points which are associated with the downloading of music album from the internet are discussed below in details.

Ethical Considerations and Legal Issues

Piracy: The piracy is playing the role of critical barrier in the field of music industry. “The 28% of the internet user make use of unauthorised services without paying any monthly charges to it” (Peitz, 2013). There is no significance associated with the process of piracy. The spectrum of the music album is going in declining direction. The sale of the music album is increasing with the use of internet but it does not give any benefit to the music industry. The customers are getting benefit of downloading music directly from the internet without taking permission from the music industry. Any unauthorised person can access the music which is available on the internet. The growth in the sale of pirated music album is increasing day by day.

Peer to peer: The point to point method of music exchange is the major problem associated with the music business. The entire film industry is getting affected by the problem of music piracy. In the peer to peer connection, the music file is directly shared from the host with the communicating parties from different sources. The growth in the P2P connection helps in upgrading the connection model to enhance the facility of sharing musical files over the internet. In the decentralized exchange model, there is no central hub located for providing the musical files to the nodes who are placing their request to access the file. “The exchange of information can be done from any source” (Warren, 2012). No central hub is required for the exchange of files in the decentralised exchange model. It is the convenient technique for accelerating the sharing of files because the failure of one node does not affect the flow of information between the participating units. The network functions are performed by the network administrator to deploy the sharing of file with ease.

Digital ripping: The digital audio is converted to the particular format by making use of ripping process. The replication of the file format can be easily converted to the replicate audio files.

The internet exchange points are used for aggregating the internet traffic. “The piracy is assumed as changing the attributes of the internet for free flowing of data for downloading” (Martens, 2013). The internet exchange points are used for connecting smaller networks. The P2P protocol is used for downloading and accessing of information. The network traffic can be actively managed with the free flow of downloading of music. “The music sale is aggregated in the last two decades for digitally recording the music on the internet” (Onyegiri, 2009). The quantifying reforms should be used for estimating the effects of piracy on the digital availability of the music. The socio economic factors are responsible for developing the new technologies for developing the new models for constructing the online sale of the music. “The central focus should be given on the technological innovation to enhance the sale of music by using the platform of internet” (Liu, 2014). The innovation of piracy brings the crisis in the music industry. The failure of the music industry arises because of the quality loss, availability of the digital goods, unproblematic exchange of music album between the source and destination. The following diagram shows the effects of piracy on purchasing of the music album:

Potential Solutions to Piracy

The data compression standards are used for managing the downloading of the music album without any hindrance. The controlling of the technological changes develops the successful structure of the music industry. The safety standards should be used for controlling the legal sale of the music. The sale of music by using internet increases the universal reachability. The digital right management standard is used for authenticating the universal applicability of music album. The other companies start developing pirated music without taking authentication from the owner. The process of piracy brings declination in the field of music. The open data compression standards are used for online distribution of music. The control should be built on the commercial downloading of the music by using the technical and legal issues. The music on demand is made available to the user by searching through different web services. The short comings of the technical and commercial projects help in online delivery of the music on the demand of the customers.

We have analysed the European online market developed for the sale of the music to provide future opportunities to increase the sale of the music album. The face to face interviews were arranged with the members of five European countries which are Germany, UK, France, Italy, and Spain. The executives focus on the survey associated with the value chain of European digital music. The aim of this research is to evaluate the development which is carried out in building the online market for the sale of the music videos. The new opportunities are created and identified for accelerating the growth of consumption of the digital media available on the internet. “The analysis of the music piracy helps in measuring the legitimate barriers which exist with the sale of music” (Department of communication, 2015). The evaluation of the interview and questionnaire helps in predicting that the increasing demand of file sharing results in the loss of music sales. The freeloaders make the music available at free of cost to the user which may affect the profitability ratio of the musical industry. The person does not want to pay single money for the online purchasing of the music album. The sharing of file is imposing the negative affect on the music industry. The behaviour of the internet user is getting changed with the availability and non-availability of the pirated musical album. The online music market provides benefits to the customers. It works in the welfare of the customers by making them available free music albums without paying a single penny for it. The music industry faces the loss of price due to the increment in the music piracy. The innovation of piracy brings the crisis in the music industry. The failure of the music industry arises because of the quality loss, availability of the digital goods, unproblematic exchange of music album between the source and destination. The Music companies have to take step forward to overcome such a situation by reshaping their business operations, dramatic transformation and distribution of music, and measuring of consumption in relation with demand and supply to know the actual cause of illegal distribution of music. The net balance between the two commodity that is customers and music industry is zero because the customers is getting free service of music availability and music industry does not get any pay for it. The public campaign have been arranged for convincing the people that process of downloading the music is an illegal and immoral activity. The restriction should be placed for downloading of the music from different sources. The value should be given for the downloaded data. The cancellation of the license should be done of the companies which promote piracy of music. According to the copyright infringement law, the person who commit digital theft should be punished and send to jail.

Conclusion

The piracy of music is going from the last two decades. “The pleasure of listening is provided to the user in the any corner of the world” (Michael, 2006). The heavy purchases of the music album from the market are completely abolished. The user mostly prefers listening music directly from the internet. The downloading of the music is an easy task because no authorisation and authentication required for carrying out the downloading activities. The musician does not get any extra cost with the increasing sale of their music album. The user does not pay a single penny for downloading the pirated music from the internet. “The downloading of the pirated music gives emphasis on the breaking of law” (Giletti, 2011). The compensation is not provided to the copyright holder for illegal distribution of the music files. The quality of the pirated music is not as good as original music. “The different sites are available for the downloading of the tracks. Sometimes the malware are attached with the downloaded music album which can have the adverse effect on the computer system of the user” (Aedermon, 2010). The downloading of the pirated music is the major source of getting malware attack on the computer system of the user. The hard earned income of the musician is used by the common user by not paying a single penny for listening and downloading their composition. This is categorised as theft and stealing of the music file.

The value to the work of the musician is not given. The downloading of each single pirated music, the process of stealing occurs. The individual should be punished for doing so because the money is not paid to the authorise person. The talent of the musicians are getting adversely affected because if they are not giving permission to make copyright of their music, the sale of the album goes on declining. The legal standards are not followed for selling and purchasing of the music album. The musicians do not like downloading of music from different sources. “The downloading of the music album is treated as an illegal activity which is carried out about 75% of the internet user” (Waelbroek, 2012). The cost should be asked for downloading the music. There is no geographic restriction for downloading of the music. The quality of the pirated music album is very low as compared to the original one. The profit of the organization is declining regularly. The hundreds of million tracks are available on the internet for accessing of the music. The sharing of files helps in ripping of the music file. Recording industry association of America focuses on development of laws for punishing to break the laws. The right holders are used for generating monopoly power for the creativity in music industry. The digital piracy is used for violation of the copyrights of music album. The accuracy is achieved in accessing the pirated music from different websites. The supply and demand of the music album can be managed by pirating the music. The trend of piracy is tremendously get increased with the increasing growth of internet technologies and web services. “The overhead cost incurred on recording the music on the CD can be reduced with the use of downloading the music directly from the internet” (Frenz, 2008). The consequences of the digital product help in affecting the economy of the music industry. The association should be developed between music piracy and organization of the crime to explore the profit driven illegal activities. The virtual digital products are used for distribution of music to any corner of the world irrespective of the geographic conditions. The open music model is used for developing online distribution of music on the demand of th customer with the management of peer to peer connection.

The social norms should be followed in illegal downloading of music. The future trend should be taken into consideration to know the effect of social norms on the pirated music. The social media platform is the major source of illegal downloading of the music. The friends and relative share the links of pirated music with each other through the social media platform.

The subscription services should be provided by the music industry. The problems should be identified with the knowledge shared by the respondent. There is no awareness program organised for getting details of the legal downloading of the music. The subscription services should be provided for the legal downloading of the music. The Spotify subscription services should be used focusing on the lack of knowledge associated the music piracy. The individual law suit should be documented for analysing the legal threat. The individual lawsuits are used for knowing the attitude of the people towards illegal downloading. 

The music industry does not get any revenues from the piracy of the music. The current activity of music piracy is going to decline in the profit of the music industry in the near future. The loss model was developed by using the top down and bottom approaches for analysing the profit or loss associate with the music industry with the sale of music album from the source of internet. The dependency of the buyer is increasing on accessing the pirated and illegal music from the internet because no extra cost is incurred with the downloading of the pirated music. The economic growth of the music industry is declining with the file sharing process on the internet. It has been researched that the purchasing of the music album is limited due to the availability of the music album of the web services without any hindrance. The quality of the pirated music album is very low as compared to the original one. The profit of the organization is declining regularly. The easy accessing of the pirated music decreases the profit of the enterprise. The marketing activity is decreasing with the rapid increase of availability of digital audio. The user can listen music according to his demand by the web services. The piracy of one music album affects the sale of other music album. The internet traffic can result in the delay in downloading of the music album.

The downloading of music is defined as the digital transfer of music to the requesting parties through the platform of internet. The illegal download of copyright material is the activity of distributing the music without the permission of the owner. The albums and song can be directly downloaded from the internet without taking any authorization schemes. The musical resources can be distributed with the permission of the owner. “The data compression techniques are used for downloading of heavy files from the internet” (Brown, 2013). The data compression are used for digital right management for restricting the copying of music. The size of the file and requirement of the bandwidth can be reduced by using these techniques. The quick accessing of the music file can be possible by using lossy codec form. The paid downloads should be used for purchasing of the song through internet. The low quality of the music files can be resolved by purchasing the original copy of the music. The RIAAA laws should be applied on the production of the music, manufacturing and distribution of it. The fast track networks are used for downloading the music efficiently. The campaigns should be organised for making the people aware about the breaking of the laws due to the carrying over of downloading of pirated music. They should be told that they have to pay money for purchasing the music from the internet because the downloading of the pirated music is the unethical activity which consumes hard earned money of the musicians. “The piracy of the music should be minimised by focusing on the court decision of right to be forgotten” (Dolata, 2011). The watermarks are added to the uploaded music file on the internet. “The minimal exposure of the pirated music is the best solution to restrict the use of distribution of the pirated music on the internet” (Burley, 2014). The statistics developed for the pirated music shows the declination graph of profit. The music distributing agencies have the adverse effect on the income due to the availability of free music on the internet. The peer to peer network is used for arranging the piracy phenomenon among the participating unit.

The digital initiatives should be taken by the music industry to stop the piracy of the music album. The new digital environment should be created for embracing the online movement of the music. The better tools and technologies should be developed for aiding sales of the music industry. The more attractive alternatives should be created which provides legal evidences. The material cost of the music albums are reduced by using the internet access. The incentives should be renewed according to the data collection. The high price of the original music should be reduced to make it affordable for the common people to buy the music legally. The availability of music on demand attracted the customers towards the downloading of the pirated music. The RIAA provides the set of rules which should be embedded within the working curriculum of the music industry to take initiatives in relation with bringing awareness about pirated music. The effective business strategies should be adopted by the organization to lower the price of the music album and bringing awareness of the ill effects associated with downloading of the pirated music. The root cause analysis should be undertaken which helps in taking step forward to clarify the effects of pirated music on the music industry. The steps should be taken to improve the profitability ratio with the increase of sale of music album with the use of internet platform. The piracy can be eliminated by not providing the copyright to the top website of the music album. The centralised distribution of the pirated music should be stopped. The cooperation of the government is required for the successful implementation of the proposal to stop the piracy. The illegal uploading and downloading of the music should be restricted and banned by the government and music industry. auditinganti-piracy innovation should be developed with the use of new technical tools and technology. The digital piracy can be stopped by bringing coordination in the industrial action in relation with the music piracy. The implementation of the ISP helps in developing graduated response system. The action framework should be developed for protecting the intellectual property with respect to digital content.

There are various techniques available which can be used for identifying the content on the internet. The technologies are used at various location to manage data on the peer to peer communication. This helps in handling information sharing on the network, development of user generated content based websites, and accessible of data to the consumers in the peer to peer communication environment. The various techniques are discussed below:

Watermarking: The watermarking system is used for identifying the audio and video data available on the internet. This unique system can cause threat to the release of music album. The identification of the distributed sources can be done with the helps of content management system and water marking system.

Fingerprinting: It is helpful in extracting essential features from the audio clip. The fingerprint detection system is used for managing the originality of the sound track and musical melody in the audio clips.

Metadata: The content identifiers are used for looking into the P2P application to enables the piracy of the music album. The Bit Torrent database system is used for matching the unlawful and lawful content available on the shared file and data. The hash tag is get associated with the availability of the pirated data to make it differentiate from the original file and data. The uploading and downloading of fie can be easily handled with the use of hash tag attached with the pirated songs. The illegal internet websites should be blocked for restricting the illegal downloading of music.

The development of easy interface helps in deploying the web services such as Pandora and Spotify. These services decrease the risk of malware and viruses associated with the downloading of the music. The use of illegal software helps in developing the illegal network for streamlining the pirated data and music. The RIAA provides the antipiracy services which are used for offering solution for anti-piracy act. The Company focuses on measuring the success rate by providing alternative solution. The rightness and wrongness of downloading the music should be checked which helps in measuring that we are going in right direction or breaking laws of the society. The good and the bad effect of the downloaded song should be separately measured. It helps in analysing that the person has done some unethical action which he had to not perform because it is against law. This helps in minimizing the downloading of the pirated music. The unethical dilemma is created with the pirated music downloading. The intellectual property right creates the ethical dilemma for not to download the music from the internet. The moral values of the user should be set forth to minimise the process of downloading pirated music.

The common reasons which are provided by the user for downloading the music are that they are not provided with any other choice of illegally downloading the pirated music, there is no significant action taken to stop the pirated music availability on the internet, and others. The piracy is the solution to overcome the problem of  high price of the music. The user are not able to afford that price. The social behaviour of the people getting changed with the awareness program organised for encouraging people not to adopt the pirated music from the internet because it is an unethical activity and against the laws. With the combined effect of people, music industry, and government helps in restricting the flow of pirated music on the internet and aids value to the working capability of the music artist. The talent and the service provided by the music artist can be improved to a large extent by providing valuable payment for the work performed. The illegal websites should be banned for the free flow of the pirated music. The legal accessing of the music should be encouraged between the youth and the youngster. The legal distribution of the music should be promoted. The people should give payment for downloading of the music. The DIGITAL RIGHT MANAGEMENT technology should be promoted for preventing the unauthorised access of the data from the internet. The fair price of the music should be paid by the customers to the music industry. The DRM system helps in detecting the piracy of the music album. The DRM connects with the licensing server through the internet to know that the downloaded music is a pirated or original one. The interoperability challenges can be easily handled by the DRM. The internet service providers can play a major role in restricting the downloading of the pirated music. It provides the mitigation strategy from pirated music by developing the internet ecosystem. The response will not be given to the customers who want to download music from the internet without paying a single money for using it. The internet regulators are used for checking the legitimate use of resources within the network. The deployment of the management practices helps in minimizing the piracy of the music, bringing awareness in the people, development of ethical behaviour, giving valuable price to the music industry, and others.

Conclusion:

The numbers of music albums are available on the internet to access. The marketing activity is decreasing with the rapid increase of digital audio. The consequences of the digital product help in affecting the economy of the music industry. From the research and survey, we evaluated that there are seven issues which are associated with the music album piracy. The various channels are used for downloading of music without paying a single penny to the music industry. The online music market provides benefits to the customers. It works in the welfare of the customers by making them available free music albums without paying a single penny for it. The socio economic factors are responsible for developing the new technologies for developing the new models for constructing the online sale of the music. The moral and legal structure should be built for the user to stop downloading of pirated songs. The music artist are not able to sustain in the music field for the longer time because the piracy is having an adverse effect on the growth of the music artist. The individual should be punished for doing so because the money is not paid to the authorise person. The legal standards are not followed for selling and purchasing of the music album. The proper consideration should be given on the legal standard to overcome the problem of piracy.

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