The Digital Music World

This blog is in response to Robert Nyman's blog concerning digital music found at: http://www.robertnyman.com/2007/03/27/people-will-always-download-movies-and-music-heres-how-to-address-it/

It is plain and simple; we live in a generation fueled by the Internet. The music industry still follows its traditional ways and has fallen back since the Internet has emerged as one the most popular, if not THE most popular, ways to connect to others. It is not surprising that the music industry is resentful at the fact that it has become easy to illegally download music because that means that they are losing money. However, when put into perspective, most of the music downloaded are individual hits. This does not mean that the user who downloaded these songs would go to the store and buy an entire cd for one song. In reality, users may recommend certain songs or artists to friends after illegally downloading them, and the friend, in turn, may go out and purchase the cd.

I find it almost impossible to hunt down every user who illegally downloads music from the Internet. Rather than trying to punish those who are guilty of this act, the music industry should try to find an alternative to this problem by making music more accessible and less expensive. Microsoft has created a stepping stone with iTunes, and the market is still open to many new ideas. The music industry should take advantage and try to revolutionize the way that people obtain their music.