Are you going to pay for that?

(Stahler, 2009)

Thanks to the internet, music, movies and other forms of media from all around the world are easily accessed by the click of a button. In relation to the iPod, Steven Levy wrote in his book:

“all someone needs to do is scroll through your library on that click wheel, and, musically speaking, you’re naked.” 

(Levy, 2006)

Our music can say a lot about whom we are but where does all of it come from? Music piracy has become a major issue for the music industry and this has been contributed to the introduction of the internet. 

“From 2004 through 2009 alone, approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks.” (RIAA, 2011)

This has led to the music industry losing a substantial amount of profit. We all think that we aren’t making much of an impact by illegally downloading music but every download has a consequence. 


Bollywood, however, has managed to overcome these challenges and have continued to reap profits from their merchandise. 

“ Industry insiders estimate that as much as 33% of Indian film companies' revenues are lost to piracy each year… Now, two major Bollywood studios aim to change that by making films directly available, via download.” (Singh, 2008)

By doing this they have managed to decrease the amount of pirated videos and increase profits. Should the music industry consider taking the same kind of action? 

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• Levy, S. (2006). The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness, New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 21-41. Accessed March 19, 2011. 
• RIAA. (2011). For Students Doing Reports: March 19^th, 2011. Accessed March 19, 2011. http://www.riaa.com/faq.php 
• Singh, M. (2008).  Bollywood's Viral Video in Time International (Canada Edition), Vol. 171, Issue 14. Accessed March, 2011. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1713342,00.html 
• Stahler. (2009). “ I’m a big fan. I’ve downloaded all your music files!”. Image. Accessed March 19, 2011. http://truefire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/downloadingcomic.jpg