Ninety-five percent of music downloads, nearly 40 billion files, have been illegally downloaded over the past 10 years according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI.) With so many free mp3 search engines available and iTunes shooting its prices up thirty cents per song, it is hard not to be pulled into the world of music pirating.
Though it is seemingly harmless to download and torrent music, what are the consequences? In some civil lawsuits, illegal downloaders can be sued up to $150,000 per single downloaded. If a person is selling CDs that have been burned illegally, they can be sued for nearly $1.5 million dollars for every CD that was sold. The price of an average concert ticket has inflated nearly 130 percent in the past 10 years alone.
“Illegally downloading music raises ticket prices for concerts because bands aren’t getting the money they would from music sales,” senior Tyler Bailey said. “iTunes is overpricing their popular music which is making it hard to actually want to buy their songs. I’m willing to pay like ten bucks for an album, maybe 79 cents for a song, not $1.29.”
Not paying for the music that is downloaded is not really saving students much money if they plan on going to concerts. Bands need money to tour, if they aren’t making any money from music sales due to free search engines and torrents, rising ticket and merchandise prices is the only way to afford touring.
“As much as I love music, I am willing to pay as little as I possibly can,” junior Alli Markham said. “I usually purchase the whole album since it’s a lot easier than buying single songs, and I’d prefer to pay less.”
However, without file sharing and illegally downloaded music, a lot of the more popular bands like All Time Low and Owl City may not have ever had a chance at making it big. Though the artists are losing more album sales, they are gaining in publicity and more and more people show up at their gigs to watch them play and buy merchandise.
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal if they’re getting publicity,” junior Alli Markham said. “Music is about fun and being able to relate to certain songs, it shouldn’t be about the money.”
