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Cassie Lukas
Susan Lester
Advanced Composition
4 October 2011
Music Industry Issue
Statistics show that sales of music via internet have dropped from $14 billion to $10
billion since 2000 (MacMillian 3).The illegal download of music via internet has been a huge
issue for a decade now.
Although it is very unfair and music companies are very against it, they will never
change the illegal download of music via internet. Leading to a huge profit loss in music
companies, the purchase of music via iTunes or Amazon MP3 is where they make a big
percentage of their money and that’s how musicians know whether their product is successful or
not. The illegal download of music via the internet has single-handedly transformed the music
industry.
First of all, the illegal download of music has been one of the biggest issues in the music
industry, because the industry has lost so much money.People downloading music illegally and
not buying it from iTunes or Amazon MP3 will cause recording companies, song writers, artists
and producers to lose money.The more people that download illegal music via the internet, the
more profits will drop in the music industry. This leads to radio stations not playing an artist’s or
song writer’s music which has an economic impact as well because music sales via the internet
will gives radio stations a good idea of the most recent popular songs.Thus, radio play makes
listeners want to listen to their stations more, so this could have an economic impact for radio
stations also. The only thing that can happen to get people to stop downloading music illegally

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via the internet is educating them as to how many people it affects.Also, radio stations make their
money from the songs that they play per day, so in reality if artists, songwriters, producers and
record companies lose their motivation to work hard and create music, then the radio stations
will not have any new music to play. It’s bad enough that this has been a huge issue in the music
industry for over a decade now, but if the radio stations go out of business, then the world’s
musical talent will fade away and, music is what defines someone and her personality and
character. Once record labels and radio stations start going out of business because of the illegal
download of music via the internet then people will start to realize that it’s fading and people
don’t want that because many people claim that music helps them through their lives. Lastly,
when an artist like Taylor Swift comes out with a new album and sells it in stores like Target or
Best Buy, she and her whole management team want people to go to the store and buy that
album because that’s where they make their money and, not to mention, receive most of their
awards based off of album sales. None of that will happen if everyone decides to download
Taylor Swift’s new album illegally off of the internet. This specific problem is one of the most
tragic problems because, if the economy drops, then the whole industry drops. The most
encouraging plan to end this issue is to keep trying to block the illegal downloading
websites.Without a doubt, over time record labels must find a way to fix this issue throughout the
music industry.
In fact, for years recording companies have been working hard to make it possible to
block illegal downloading website on the internet.Firstly, the illegal download of music via
internet has been an issue in the music industry for over a decade now and anyone who is
involved in the music industry has been working hard to find a solution to this problem. The
specific problems are the illegal downloading websites called FrostWire and LimeWire;these are

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the most popular downloading websites and are also the music industry’s biggest enemy.The
only thing that the music industry can keep doing is to figure out a way to block the illegal
downloading websites from everyone and, of course, encourage it to stop.Producers and record
companies knew ten years ago that the illegal download of music was going to be a huge issue
and tried to prevent it back then but didn't have the right technologies to do so. Record
companies have to experience new and improved online services and protect their music to the
fullest.Recording companies have experienced new and improved online services to protect their
music rights to the fullest, but the issue here is pursuing the new technologies.The music industry
has to keep surfing the internet and come up with new technologies to finally prevent the illegal
download of music via the internet.The illegal download of music is the biggest issue throughout
the music industry, and will take a very long time to resolve this issue and block every single
downloading website.The music industry may never come up with a new technology to prevent
people from downloading music illegally via the internet.Perhaps, in order to fix this huge issue
in the music industry that sparked over a decade ago, recording companieshave to stop making
music temporarily to prove a point to the outside world. Clearly, websites such as LimeWire and
FrostWire are a curse to the music industry and may be a lasting issue and will be almost
impossible to solve.
In addition, the process of downloading music illegally via internet takes away from the
hard work from professions such as song writers, producers, artists and record labels.In order to
sell sheet music, you have to travel worldwide and be expected to work hard and sell the music
that people want to hear, as in live music. That is part of the issue today; people aren’t working
hard enough for what they want not only in any career pathway but, specifically, the music
industry.In order for people want to buy music, artists have to travel worldwide and pursue their

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music. The more artists travel the world to pursue their music, the more their fans will want to
support them and actually go to the store and buy their albums or go to iTunes and buy their
music off of there.Furthermore, an artist could work so hard and put her full efforts and her
whole heart into being a musician and be very successful at it, and then have her profits be stolen
by illegal downloaders. It all depends on the specific genre she sings, how much she
toursworldwide, who her producer is, and how well her music sells on a regular daily basis.No
matter what her profession is, she is always going to go through hard times in her job at which
she will learn multiple valuable lessons. However, the download of illegal music via the internet
takes away a lot of hard work from the artist, songwriter etc. This causes an artist to experience a
“hard time” in their profession.In order to fix this specific issue in the music industry, people
need to start actually buying music and spending money on concert tickets and supporting each
and every artist. The sales of online music have drastically dropped about $4 billion on the past
ten years, and this has a lot to do with downloading music illegally. As time may go on, sales
will keep drastically dropping and soon enough everyone will be illegally downloading music.
Various people are still using digital download services such as iTunes and Amazon MP3, but
those people will soon move to FrostWire or Video to MP3.This statistic of the music industry,
artists such as Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Sugarland, Keith Urban, Brad
Paisley, etc, put their heart and soul into their music each and every day and to see that the sales
of online music has dropped $4billion in the past ten years is a huge issue. This means that more
and more people are downloading music illegally which effects any artists motivation to keep
producing more music for the entire world to hear. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, artists,
record labels, etc, have to stop making new music temporarily to teach the world a lesson to stop
downloading music illegally via the internet. In Conclusion, motivation is the key when it comes

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to artists or any profession in the music industry, and I personally don’t want any artist to lose
that because music defines anyone’s life and of course helps anyone through the thick and the
thin.
As you can see, the illegal download of music via the internet definitely and absolutely
has single handedly corrupted the music industry in multiple ways. The solution to these issues
will take a very long time and could be almost impossible to do.