Online piracy is one of the major problems that the entertainment industry faces. Online piracy makes the industry lose billions of dollars annually. It has led to significant reduction in the number of music CDs that record labels sell annually. Record labels have undertaken several strategies to reduce online piracy.
Litigation against companies that engage in online piracy is one of the strategies that record labels use to reduce the vice. In addition, record labels have set up legitimate websites where customers can download music online. However, these measures have not been successful. The Pirate Bay was one of the companies that engaged in online piracy of music. The company enabled users to access an unlimited number of pirated content.
The Pirate Bay was primarily a business. Therefore, it had to make a profit to remain in operation. The company generated its revenue from advertisements. There were various advertisements on the company’s web page. Companies that advertised on The Pirate Bay’s web page paid a premium price for the service. Since most people who pirate music online are between the ages of 14 and 21, the advertisements were very effective.
This is because people in this age bracket are more responsive to various online advertisements. Therefore, the business model of the company is the advertising revenue. The Pirate Bay did not charge customers to download music from the site. In addition, The Pirate Bay did not store the pirated music. The company was a search engine that enabled its users to access pirated content expediently from other providers. This enabled the company to gain popularity quickly.
P2P networks that operate without corporate sponsorship may repackage and sell pirated content to generate revenue. The networks usually sell the repackaged content at prices that are much lower than the recommended market prices. However, P2P networks do not remit the payments they receive from their customers to the music companies that own the copyright for the repackaged content.
P2P networks may also sell subscriptions to private networks. Certain P2P networks may generate revenue by advertising to users of the networks through spyware and adware programs that have pop-up advertisements. Users download the spyware or adware when they download software from the company. The spyware and adware may send unsolicited e-mails from parties that pay for the service.
There are many social and legal implications of piracy. Various people argue that P2P sites deny musicians and record labels valuable income. This reduces the profitability of the record labels. In addition, reduced income may reduce motivation of artists and record labels. However, there are arguments against this opinion. Record labels do not benefit musicians.
Their only aim is to make money by exploiting musicians. Musicians make a sizeable percentage of their income from endorsements and concerts. Therefore, it is wrong for the record labels to claim that they are protecting the music industry when in fact they are only protecting their own interests. Record labels should not shut down P2P sites since they are simply a means of accessing pirated music.
They do not engage in piracy directly. Shutting the P2P sites would not eliminate piracy. It would only make it hard for people to pirate music using P2P sites. However, people would ultimately find other means of accessing pirated content. The only solution is for the record labels to develop new platforms of promoting and distributing their music. In addition, record labels may target parties that provide pirated content to P2P networks.
The ruling of the Swedish court would not reduce illegal sharing of music files over the internet. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on sharing files over the internet would not reduce internet piracy in the US. The decision of the courts would make people devise new means of pirating music.
These methods may be more creative and innovative. This may make it hard for authorities to detect piracy. Therefore, the only solution is for record labels to develop new promotion and distribution channels that may help in countering piracy. Facebook and Apple are some of the companies that have developed innovative ways of distributing music. These companies have experienced tremendous success due to the innovative music distribution channels.
People who are more than 21 years old are usually more cautious than people who are much younger. This is because these people may have various responsibilities. Therefore, they would not like to engage in activities that would put them at risk. Therefore, legal action against people who engage in piracy may deter people who are more than 21 years old from engaging in piracy.
Legal action due to piracy may put their jobs or families in jeopardy. In addition, people who are more than 21 years old have a source of income. Therefore, they may be unwilling to download pirated content since they can pay for the original version. In addition, people who are more than 21 years old may not have time to search for pirated content, which is not easily available on the internet.
On the other hand, people who are between 14 and 21 years old may engage in piracy since people in this age bracket are carefree. They may not have a clear understanding of the consequences of their actions. In addition, people in this age bracket may download pirated content due to lack of money to buy the original versions.
In the modern world, record labels do not perform roles that justify their huge revenues. Record labels engage in the promotion and distribution of music.
However, technology has availed various tools that musicians may use to distribute and promote their work. Social media is one of the major technological tools that musicians may use to promote and distribute their music. The major advantage of these technological tools is that musicians would only use a fraction of the money that record labels would use to distribute and promote their music.
Various bands have launched their music careers using YouTube or other internet based platforms. These platforms enable artists to earn more income than what the record labels may be willing to pay them. Record labels still use the business models that they were using during the 1980s prior to the invention of the internet. Therefore, it is vital for record labels to embrace these tools. Failure to embrace these tools would make record labels lose their competitive edge in the market.
Piracy is one the problems that make the entertainment industry lose vast sums of money. It is vital for record labels and other legitimate companies in the industries to formulate new methods of promotion and distribution of copyrighted content. Suing companies and people that engage in piracy would not solve the problem. This may make the culprits devise more innovative ways of engaging in piracy. This would increase the severity of the problem.