Monday, March 10, 2014
Is Piracy Outdated?
During my early years of high school, music pirates were seen as a form of cyber Robin Hood. They could share music and promote artists outside the confides the music companies erected. Many have argued over the years on whether this is true, but I find the question quite irrelevant. What concerns me more is if piracy did help promote the music industry, is it still necessary with today's technological advancements? Back in the early 21st century, the only form of free music sampling had to come through torrent websites. Today there are many free legal sites, like Pandora and Spotify, that allows people to sample, share,and financially support artists without paying a penny. Many artist have already started promoting themselves through file sharing sites like YouTube and Facebook. These sites give access to everyone and make promoting one's talents simpler than ever before. So if the artists are already giving out their music for free, what excuses do pirates have left for stealing from them?
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An interesting question is whether the music industry would have authorized services like Spotify if piracy hadn't been such a compelling alternative.
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. The music industry had problems when radio first came out, so I doubt they would have personally set up services like Spotify. But that isn't really the point, it is whether people still have an excuse for pirating.
DeleteAs a metaphor, say a large country occupies a smaller country because of instability and threats. Once that smaller country proves that it is stable, is there really a reason for the larger one to continue occupying it. The larger country is what made it possible for stability, but now that its stable, the larger country is more of a hindrance than a blessing.
My question was just that, has piracy run out its welcome to the point where any real benefit is now gone?