Music Piracy (and The Digital World)

                I read a very interesting Forbes article on music piracy.  My intent was to find out if music piracy is actually hurting or helping the music industry in terms of sales.  Some of you may wonder how music piracy could help sales.  It all depends on the motive behind the piracy.  If people are listening to pirated versions on songs in order to get a better feel for the music (see if they like it), then having access to the full song may convince them to purchase it (the music will sell itself).  However, if people are listening to a pirated version of the song because they don’t feel like paying for it (supporting the artist is not important to them), then piracy will hurt sales. 

                This Forbes article sited two studies that had contrasting results.  In the end, the true answer wasn’t revealed.  So, why did I still like the article?  There was an interesting twist at the end where the author started to discuss the impact of the digital world on the music industry.  Instead of writing my own blog about all of this (and restating everything in the article), I thought it would be a good idea to just reference a link to the article.  Check it out.

 

Music Piracy: Major Studies Conflicted Over Recording Industry Impact