The Great File Sharing Debate

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The Great File Sharing Debate

dunno if I (m.n.) agree with all of this, I reckon a massive internet led change in the music industry might well be a good thing; in my opinion we've been exploited for far too long... drop us an email and let us know what you think

It's The End of the World As We Know It - But Do You Feel Fine?

Technological advances have almost always been assumed to be a good thing, with most believing that the world they live in is better than that of say 50 years ago. However, over the last couple of years technological advances have escalated to such a degree that, in many cases, such advances may actually not be such a good thing, causing havoc within many of the creative industries.

The music industry was badly hit with the emergence of Napster around two years ago. Mp3 compressing technology has meant that a virtually CD quality song takes around 15 to 20 minutes to download on an average home internet connection, and can be exchanged and 'traded' over Napster. Though the music industry was quick to shut the service down due to the detrimental effects it could have, alternatives which are even better have since appeared, in a degree too great to simply be suppressed by the music industry giants. What's more, as internet connections become faster, with the growth of ADSL, and Cable internet connections becoming more affordable, tracks can be downloaded in a matter of seconds.

Further to this, the price of a CD writer has also dramatically come down, whilst the speed has increased; one can now pick one up new for around Ł50. The songs that they download can either be 'burnt' straight onto CD (the price of which again has become cheaper by the day) in Mp3 format, or to work in a normal CD player. There are now even CD players and Discmen which will play your Mp3 straight off a copied CD at a quality hardly noticeable to the original. It is true that copying and taping off the radio is not a new thing but never before have people been able to obtain copies virtually identical to the original song so easily, so quickly and virtually for free.

A normal recordable CD can hold around 700 minutes of music in CD quality; around 8 or 9 albums. What's more someone has offered to send me every CD released in a current week. This includes not only the major releases, but more obscure ones too; all in Mp3 format, including all the artwork on the CD itself for a mere Ł2 a CD each. With, say, 8 albums on that's around Ł120 of music at High Street prices, the music sounds the same, the artwork can look virtually the same depending on your printer, but the price is astronomically different. Then the real problem; the artist receives nothing and neither does the record company.

In March 2002 EMI slashed 1,800 jobs within the music industry. In such a situation no chances will be taken and bands are not going to be signed unless they are a guaranteed winner, manufactured to the same hackneyed, overused yet popular formula, making it harder for real musicians to get signed other than in the backing band to the latest and soon to be forgotten manufactured pop idol. Although we may be concerned about the state of the music industry, Mp3s are still downloaded. What's more, it has reached such a stage that we can not take a step back, those who want to download Mp3s will download Mp3s and can not be stopped. But one cannot simply blame Mp3s for the state we are in. Technology has escalated so far that the world is changing so fast at what seems to be an uncontrollable pace. With the emergence of DVD recorders in the next couple of years the film industry seems the next to be hit.

With the development of DivX film technology, the movie equivalent to Mp3, one can watch almost DVD quality movies from a file the size of a recordable CD. So as internet connections get faster, people are able to download films off Morpheus (an improved Napster for films, pictures, software, music, etc.) in a matter of hours. These films are not just those out on video, but include those only just hitting the cinema. With such access would people really want to pay Ł5 a ticket in the cinema when they can see the new releases illegally, on, what will soon be a projector screen (and for some even now!).

Although the film industry is largely profitable, as more and more people are able to take advantage of the technological advances, will it still make enough to continue? Certainly not in the way that we know it. The internet was hailed as an amazing advance and in many ways it is, but it is causing the end of the world in the way that we know it. We have a situation where big giants like EMI are badly hit, and the likes of Oasis suffer from people hearing how good (or bad) their new album is when it is leaked 3 months before its release. With this, and when bands are dropped all around us as they fail to penetrate the top ten, one has to realise that there is a problem. Although on the surface technological advances look beneficial, the long term effects may be far from that. Would you really want an original album if you can have an exact copy for a fraction of the price, delivered to your door or downloaded straight to your computer, affecting most of us only in our wallet; but is that the only effect?

However much we dislike technological changes we can not do anything but accept them; the world progresses and cannot be stopped. We all benefit and suffer from change and we all must live with the consequences.