by Steven Booth

Created on: August 03, 2009

Is the unauthorized downloading of music ethical? No. it is not. Anytime an artist creates a song it is his/her property. It is up to them, or whoever controls the rights to the song what they want to do with it. Is it understandable why music piracy is so prevalent? The answer is also yes. The music business is a mess, and has been unable and/or unwilling to change it's business model in the face of revolution. However sympathetic as it may be, it is ultimately unethical to download songs in an unauthorized fashion.

To understand the depth of this issue, one must pay attention to the creative process from the initial writing of the song up until the final distribution. An artist spends time writing a collection of songs for an album. This is often a process that may take a few hours or a few years, depending on who the artist is. Next comes the arranging and recording where a band and an engineering team turn rough ideas into finished songs. Once again, this can take anywhere from a couple of days to a few years. After the music is finished, it must be promoted and distributed. This creation takes not only the artists, but also producers, engineers, session musicians, A & R people, etc. It takes a large group of people to make this happen. If the music is successful, these people get paid. If not, they either don't get paid or they're not paid as much.

Illegal downloading subverts the system. The songwriters don't make the royalties they should, it lowers the sales of the record, causing a further hit to the artist, and while the production and promotion crews may get paid, poor sales of the record will affect their chances of making money in the future. Illegal downloading robs everyone involved in the production of music.

However, the artists and record company machine are anything but sympathetic characters, and they quite possibly played a hand in inventing their own marginalization. Artists like Metallica have sued their own fans, the record business ruthlessly stamped out sites like Napster without even bothering to figure out the business model, CDs have become overpriced- most people would rather pay a few bucks for their favorite songs on Itunes, if they don't just steal it in the first place. In a nutshell, the record business in collusion with many artists have conspired to screw the paying customer. Combine that with the ease of downloading music off the internet, and it means trouble for the record business. Physical record sales are in a swoon, and Itunes and other pay sites don't make up for it. People still listen to music as much as ever, and it is due to piracy. Wrong it may be, but the music business helped create this.

Illegally downloading music is wrong because it denies the artists and the people who help the artist record and distribute their music from getting duly compensated. Even though the greedy artists and record companies have pushed people to resort to piracy, it may make them more sympathetic than your average thief, but they still are wrong.

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