Should Music Be Free?

I like to consider myself as a serious music consumer. I have weeks of music on my iTunes account, and even more on CDs in my room. I have always obtained my music on “the up and up”, always purchasing my CDs or buying music form the iTunes store. So a few years ago, when I logged into iTunes one day, I was very disappointed to find that iTunes had enacted a sales hike. The majority of songs on iTunes were now $1.29, as opposed to the previous value of $0.99 for all songs on iTunes. I was about twelve or thirteen, and obtained most if not all of my iTunes spending money from gift cards from Christmas or birthdays. I was angry and frustrated when I saw these hikes in prices. Why do I get less bang for my digital buck? Around the same time, I kept hearing how the music business is failing, with numerous record stores across the country having to close down because they weren’t making any money. Why was this? What was the reason for this change in the music industry? Since then, I have learned why prices on iTunes have increased, and why record stores have gone bankrupt.

We are in the digital age, and with the immense progress of the internet has come the inevitable transition in the way that the average person obtains music. Rather than physically going to a record store, music consumers are now able to obtain their music online. Unfortunately, these online methods of obtaining music tend to be illegitimate, and cheat artists out of their hard earned money. Therefore, record stores are failing due to lack of attendance, and iTunes has become more expensive in order to compensate artists for their financial losses elsewhere online.

An argument as to why the illegal collecting of music via the web is okay is that the public has a right to free music. I disagree with this view completely. Perhaps music can be free to listen to, on websites such as Pandora, YouTube or Spotify, but I’m not sure that is what people mean when they say the public has a right to free music. Obtaining music from an artist without compensation is illegal for a reason. Artists work hard to create music, and deserve to be fairly compensated for their work. Saying that music should be free is like saying people have the right to free cars, shoes, or any other product made by a craftsmen. Clearly, the public does not have the right to these products being free, so why is music any different? When a song is written, the rights to that song are in the possession of the artist, and that artist’s record label, with the latter having greater power in the rights of the song. Artists tend to receive a smaller percentage of the royalties for a song than the record company, so when music is obtained illegally online, it is hurting the artist most of all, because they lose the small percentage of the royalty that they would have received had the song been purchased legitimately. Hence, musicians are now going on tour more than ever, because it has become one of the only sure ways that they can get steady income.

However, there is an exception as to when it is acceptable to obtain music for free online, and that is when the artist is making their music available for free online. This is a useful tool for artists to use to gain publicity, especially when that artist isn’t particularly well known. Artists that share their music are banking on the fact music has become so easily obtained online. These artists are merely giving in to the power of the internet and making music for download simply as a way to get attention. Of the five artists that were nominated for best new artist at the Grammy Awards this last February, three of these acts, one of which being FrankOcean, originally were signed by their record labels as a result of releasing music online.

Having covered the online music scene, I now look to the record stores and their dwindling sales. As previously mentioned, less people are going to record stores and choosing to obtain their music legally or illegally online for the convenience factor. As well, record stores tend to sell music for higher prices, mostly because the consumer is paying for the “hard copy”. Thus, because of financially sound as well as lazy consumers, record stores are not making as much money as they used to before the digital age. However, there is still hope for some of these stores. Record stores such as Amoeba Music in California sell used music as well as new music, allowing for thrifty music consumers to again return to music stores to purchase their music.

Will illegal websites geared towards the free download of music continuously hinder the music industry? I believe that they will, unless harsher online restrictions are made in order to prevent these kinds of websites from being allowed to provide music to be downloaded illegally. If harsher measures are taken, then someday, artists may not have to tour as much as they have to, and maybe, just maybe, I can buy songs on iTunes for $0.99 again.

(The Bass Department by spaceabstract)