I believe music has no inherent value. Music should not have a permanent price because I believe music can change in value, and not all music is the same value. This issue presents itself often in the controversy over illegally downloading music. The illegal downloading of music can be beneficial to the artist and in some cases they may even support it.
The price of music can not be inherent because it does change overtime. The demand of music changes, for example as the music gets older the amount of people who want to purchase it may decrease, or it may increase, in which case the value of the music should increase or decrease to support the production of the music. In a similar case, music that is more popular should be priced slightly above music that is less popular, therefore music shouldn't have an inherent value. For example Itunes prices more popular songs higher than they do less popular songs to support the higher demand on those more popular songs.
The illegal downloading of music has remained a debated issue for many years. Many people believe that the illegal downloading of music is not right, but often artists support the free downloading of their music. Many artists often make the free downloading of music available on their websites to promote themselves and gain support from the public. Often this illegal downloading is a way to expose people to many different kinds of music and allow some lesser-known artists to gain support and popularity amongst people. In an interview with NME magazine Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold said that the illegal downloading of music, "will only make music richer as a platform." He also stated that this is how he has gotten much of his music throughout his younger years and he fully supports the illegal downloading. It is true that since the music is free it does target a larger audience and allows the artists to be heard by a larger group of people.
Another argument in the issue of illegally downloading music is that the artist has enough money, that after a certain point in time the artist has enough money and the free downloading of their music shouldn't have such a huge impact on them. These reasons only further the argument that music has no inherent value.
The value of music fluctuates with the times and there cannot be a permanent priced placed on it. As the times change the value of music should change with it, growing and rising depending on the circumstances. Artists can grow with their music and as they progress their music can become in a sense more valuable, or the opposite can occur. Some music may be considered of higher value than other music, for example music made with one's voice and an instrument are often highly regarded whereas music generated by a computer could be seen as less valuable, which I think has a role in music's inherent value or lack there of.
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