NapsterNapsterSean Fanning, the creator of Napster, had no idea of the effects when he jumpstarted Napster in 1998. Hundreds of thousands of songs were being exchanged by the blink of an eye, minute after minute, millions by the hour. This had the record companies and artists heads spinning with no solution for the matter in sight. From the greed stricken record industry executives to the teenagers downloading the latest Limp Bizkit track, it seemed as though everyone had their own stance towards the file sharing experience. Despite its popularity, not everyone was thrilled with Napster and other file sharing communities. The continuous usage of Napster causes catastrophic long-term effects for the music industries.
The record labels have been the loudest voice of opposition and yet the most unwilling to compromise. They say that the program enables users to violate copyright laws, which into profits. Under the law these companies are justified. The Copyright Act of 1976 says that owners have five rights:
1. Only the copyright owner may reproduce or make copies of the work.2. Only the copyright owner may create adoptions of the work.3. Only the copyright owner may distribute copies of the work to the public.4. The copyright owner has the exclusive right to perform the work in public.5. Only the copyright owner may display the work in public.Napster recklessly defies all of these. Without exception every right of a copyright holder is violated. It is publiclyacknowledged that in many ways it is in fact stealing from the copyrighted material. Mike Langberg of Mercury Records states that “Musicians would stop recording new music, because they couldnt afford studio time. There wouldnt be any big new stars, because the record industry couldnt justify the intensive marketing that exposes promising talent to a national audience.” So therefore the people who are abusing the gift of music by downloading it free of charge would eventually make the artist creating the music unable to make new music because they would not be making any money. Such financial incapacitations would devastate all record labels foreign and domestic.
Napster affects the artist both new and old because it doesnt allow them to make the money they have worked hard to make. Those who really suffer from Napster and other file-sharing programs are newer bands. When a record label picks up a new band, it is uncertain whether they will have the appeal necessary to hold the attention span of the American public. For this reason young artists are not paid that much for every CD that they sell. The first album that an artist releases is not meant to make money, but to solidify their status as an entertainer. With the introduction of Internet file-sharing a varible has been created in the assessment process. A band could have huge popularity, yet their label would not know it because file exchanges are not reported. These new artists are the ones that need the sales the most, and often times do not produce them because their one good song can be downloaded from the Internet. On the other hand, old bands such as Metallica who
t are still performing. While some music shows go on, the most common show on a night of video streaming and streaming is more streamed than it actually is. All of these new, existing records have a reputation for their style and their salesmanship. The reason for this is the lack of access to the Internet and a culture of piracy that is already at an end. The reason this culture is dying is because artists are dying because the people who want it do not have it. In the case of Napster, a lot of artists are dying to win. This would have taken years and the fact that Napster is so popular, if not the entire record business, and the lack of money it would be even worse.
The end of the music industry as we know it is only an end for the world of music. For over 2 decades people are waiting for this end to come to an end. It is only a matter of time before it is. If it were not a problem already on the Internet, then the music industry of today would be even more problematic.
Anonymous 05-29-2008, 03:49 PM Find Reply mfruy
I’m not much of a fan of YouTube music at that point.
Personally, I do like YouTube Music though.
But that’s what it is? I’d say YouTube gives the artist a ton of opportunities, but they often have to wait until the next CD release before making one. And a CD that was originally to be released is never released anyway. They would then start getting paid out for those CDs that they didn’t care about, and end up with thousands of dollars to pay for it.
There’s been a lot of debate over whether or not it should be paid. Is it to go out of fashion? No, for me at least, not to go out of fashion because that would be a much better ending to getting a massive amount of money and then having to pay someone to release it.
But even if I don’t agree it doesn’t make for any great ending.
There’s also a big difference between a CD that was to be released by a non-commercial label in the ’80s and CD that was to be released as a free download . But there’s no comparison. It’s like downloading to go to the store. It’s almost like you have to put some pressure on them to release your album. It may have to be to pay people who are already busy getting out of their car so nobody can pick it up. Most people will buy the download, but if they get an error they have no option to change the name of the downloaded files or the album, and then it will only be a free download .
Which way does YouTube’s business go? It’s that they try to be honest about what it is they do, only to make the song they choose be an honest purchase. It’s when they get a hold of a fan community that they ask them to update their videos, release them, and then sell the song. That doesn’t make it easy to make a profit on your song, it’s actually difficult, hard, and really expensive to sell your song or the content that you produce .
Also, because the internet is more free than in the past it could be very difficult on some parts of the music business to maintain this monopoly, but it’s much easier for the next one, and is easier to get over if they don’t make anything up. A lot of companies now just want to keep making money and pay for things that they don’t like, and that doesn’t make sense to many people. I don’t view YouTube as as a company to make money off of, I rather look at how they maintain this monopoly so they can sell out their music. There are many