Critically Assess the Proposition that Illegal Downloading is Essay

Critically Assess the Proposition that Illegal Downloading is Destroying the Music Industry - Essay Example Copyright is an important factor in the discussion of the impact of illegal downloads on the music industry. Without copyright, there would be no claim upon which to determine if sharing files is illegal. Marshall (2005, p. 39) writes that one of the first fundamental changes in the relationship of music to commodity occurred when the UK Copyright Act of 1814 when copyright began to be valid throughout the life of the author of a work. The rippling effect was to add the author as part of the value of the work. In the case of illegal downloads, it can be argued that value is being shifted once more into the public ownership of the works and away from the authors of the works. When music becomes more nameless as it is not acknowledge through monetary payment, it can be said that the music is taken from the authors and placed in the hands of masses. Navigating digital download technologies means redefining the nature of music ownership (May 2002, p. 119). It is not clear, however, wheth er or not this will create damage to the music industry to diminish its existence or if it will mean reconfiguring the process of music commodification. Current models are not working and future models have yet to be revealed. It is also relevant to the process to discuss the influence of YouTube on the digital download controversy. On the YouTube site people can search for almost any song they wish to listen to and get the audio content as well as some form of visual content. The files can be shared through other outlets such as Facebook. The issue of copyright has emerged for the site as much of the content has not been purchased and it is not being spread through legal terms (Hilderbrand 2007, p. 48). Often items are deleted over the copyright issue. Other artists allow the use of... This essay approves that scientific discovery leads to consequences that are often unpredictable when put into public use. The changes in social construction are affected by the instrumentalizing of new technologies. The capacity to record the voice and then to hear it outside of a live performance changed the face of human experience. The capacity to disseminate music in a widely diverse number of ways for content and listening has further changed the nature of music as it affects the human condition. the nature of music creation has turned to digitalization, thus placing into context a whole new format for creation and consuming music. Technology has influenced the construction and consumption of music. As music has changed, it should be expected that the consumption of music would change. This report makes a conclusion that the music industry is in jeopardy of being destroyed in its current incarnation, but this will mean that some other format will emerge. The importance of music in culture has been far too deeply established to be completely eradicated by the freedom to download content through file sharing. Where corporate influence has been strong in the development of taste and cultural music appreciations before the internet, listeners now have access to work that would never have been in the public before the wide distribution capacities of the internet. The fear that the music industry more likely has is not the losses incurred by a lack of recording sales, but that they are no longer in control of their consumers, taste and influence in the hands of anyone who can create music, upload a file, and share it with the world.