Legal vs Illegal downloading sites

Owning music was once a commodity enjoyed by those privileged enough to afford records, cassettes, CDs, whichever media was available. In 1999, however, a program that allowed people to share audio files called 'Napster' changed not only the way people collect music, it brought change to the entire music culture. The ability for people to download single songs, whole albums, and even entire discographies over the internet has led to the downfall of many record companies, but that is another discussion within itself. As online technology has advanced, file sharing and various other music sharing media have become the popular route to new music. This entry will discuss the two different forms of acquiring music in the digital age: legally and illegally.

There are a multitude of different sources of legal music online, both commercial and non-commercial. The majority of commercial downloading sites (such as itunes, napster 2.0, and emusic) have great selections of music, focusing more on mainstream hits. The most important reason most people download from legal sites is the fact that they have full rights to the song/album purchased, and thus will not get sued by the RIAA. The disadvantages of commercial sites is that each song costs $.99, or $9.99 for an album (prices vary on provider), and the selection of music offered is limited to mainstream genres/artists. The combination of these two (costliness and limited selection), though, has led many (at least those who aren't afraid of the RIAA) to turn away from paying for a poor selection of music and look to other methods of acquiring music.

Other methods, mainly peer-to-peer file sharing clients (such as kazaa, limewire, and pirate bay), have come out of the wood work since the original Napster was shut down in 2002. For those who are unfamiliar, p2p file sharing allows anyone who has access to the internet the ability to download and/or share any media, FOR FREE. From underground to mainstream to top40 hit, almost any song can be found and downloaded from these p2p clients. Due to this, the RIAA has worked endlessly for the past decade to eradicate the internet of these music thieves. These programs do have their downfalls, though. P2p programs (kazaa/limewire), however great the sharing capabilities are, often come bundled with adware and spyware. Also, when downloading a file, you are never sure whether or not the file is a virus or what it is meant to be. Thus, there is a much higher risk when using p2p clients to find/download music, but also higher reward (selection-wise).

The fight between the downloading population and the RIAA has made way for new forms of sharing music. A growing number of artist, mainly new and upcoming artists, have blogs or social sites that allow their music to be downloaded for free. The music artists put on these sites is music that was made by the individual (as well as the artist's production crew) without the help of a record company. Thus, this music can be sold or given away, whatever the artist feels best. The growing amount of blogs and social music sites (such as myspace, bandcamp, and datpiff) is allowing all artists to create and interact with their own fan base. This is the future of the music community.