Thursday, September 29, 2011

Final Project: Music Piracy



For my final project I will seek to analyze the ways in which piracy has influenced the music industry. It is safe to say piracy causes many problems for the music industry and will continue to do so unless there are large steps taken to increase security on digital music. Piracy has caused problems for the music industry as a whole, and not just the digital music industry. I will look into the issue of music piracy on many different levels, including the ways piracy has changed the music industry as a whole. The music industry has responded to the problem of piracy forming different groups that seek to regulate piracy, which will be further discussed in the paper. Piracy has caused a huge problem in the music industry, and unless there are more steps taken to regulate digital music there could be consequences leading to a change in the framework of the music industry.

The topic of digital music piracy is one, which has been discussed thoroughly in class. I will focus on three main questions. The first is what has the music industry done to try and regulate the illegal download of music? From there the paper will take a different turn seeking to answer a significantly different question: How has music piracy and digital music began to change the music industry? Finally, all of this information will be concluded with a final question, which is what will happen to the music industry if they are unable to get the problem of piracy under control?

Answering these questions throughout the paper should lead to a general analysis of the problem as a whole and the impact piracy is having on the music industry. Finally the paper will provide an understanding of the impact piracy and digital music will have on the music industry unless they are able to adapt to new technology and continue to grow as an industry.

2 comments:

  1. Tyler, great topic! I think digital music/ piracy is a very fascinating dynamic. We the consumers seem to have total control over the future of the music industry. As we discussed in class it is almost impossible to eliminate piracy thus the industries will have to come up with new tactics to create jobs, money, and appeal to the consumers. It would be interesting to explore the idea of eliminating the labels, thus the consumers would work directly with the artist. Would this be the answer to all of our digital music piracy problems?
    As a class we agreed that we download illegally because "we will not be the one to get caught". It would be nice to add a section about risk taking and what that means to our American culture (right vs wrong).
    Lastly, I think it would be beneficial to go into the history of both digital music (the steps we took before going digital) and piracy and then go into how they are connected.

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  2. Nice topic, Tyler. I think your third question about looking to the future of the music industry, and analyzing the overall changes music piracy can or will bring is a very interesting idea. I will be curious if you will analyze this piracy movement from the point of view of the musicians, corporations, consumers, or all, because I think there are certainly arguments to be considered from every angle here.

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