Record industry changes tactics to battle illegal downloading

For the last decade or so, one thing has been majorly crippling the music industry: illegal downloading.  

We are so unwilling to pay artists for their work that it has caused music sales to drop 47 percent over the last ten years, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

It is to the point where the industry is saying enough is enough and has spent a reported 64 million dollars on lawsuits as of 2008, and it has no doubt gone up since them.  

I get that there is a lesson to be learned about pirating music, but when you are losing that much money, it is fair to say you are doing it wrong.  

This is part of the reason the industry has started moving away from punishing the offenders and has put more effort into building alternative options to illegal downloading.  

With the popularity of music sites like Pandora, Spotify and YouTube, the industry is hoping that these will provide a way for us to still enjoy free music and for their artists and other important workers to get paid.  Almost all of these also have the ability to be upgraded for a small fee that will allow you to listen without commercials or be able to put it on a device or similar perks that could arguably make it worth your while.  

I can understand why the music industry is all up in arms.  

You can't just walk into a store, take a video game, and walk out without paying.  It is a more obvious and straightforward offense where pirating music can be done from the comfort of your own home, and no one is really there to give you a slap on the wrist for it.  

This is the problem with everything being digital instead of tangible.  Instead of a physical CD or cassette where there isn't really an efficient way to share things, you just have a file that you can download and upload at your discretion just like I can do with my homework everyday.

I like how convenient everything is and I am completely okay with being able to share information, and subsequently music, in all the ways we do, but I am also ecstatic that they have stopped throwing money at small time lawsuits and started finding effective alternatives to illegal pirating.  

We live in an age of technology where a downloader is going to download whether it is legal or not.  

Changing the battle strategy to work around the mentality of a generation is probably going to be more effective than suing everyone.

I love Pandora and YouTube, and I am pretty sure I would have a conniption if they weren't around and free to use.  I am also glad that the music industry is starting to use these avenues as a way to deter illegal downloading.  

Yeah, there are kids that are still going to do it, but with how easy and accessible the alternative options are we there should be a pretty big decrease because we get the free music we want and the industry gets the money from the music produced that they want.