The music industry and the Internet have a very interesting relationship. Back in 1999, Napster came to the forefront with a revolutionary idea that changed the way anyone thought about music: peer-to-peer file sharing which allowed users to swap music files for free, with no regard to copyrights. This new service neglected copyrights of music, which meant that the artist would not get royalties despite everyone getting their music. People thought this new idea was justified; popular musicians were already rich and unknown musicians would benefit from exposure that they previously did not get.
Illegal downloading of music continued and rose enormously in popularity. This eventually led to numerous lawsuits from musicians and record labels, causing the shut down of Napster and forcing them to pay millions in copyright restitution. But illegal downloading was too popular to stop entirely. This led to waves and waves of other free p2p downloading programs and networks, like Kazaa and Limewire. The music industry had changed. It needed to adapt.
Eventually, legal music downloading became the industry's answer, with the likes of Apple's iTunes, where anyone can download music for a fee, which helped rectify artist's royalties and ensuring the artists get paid for the music that they create.
But with the music industry going digital, it created a brand new way for people to view and hear new music. The internet has done some wonderful things for the music industry, like allowing just about anyone to be recognized and be able to produce and publish music for millions to see, but at the same time still features many illegal downloads of music files.
It is a love/hate relationship.
But, everyone is a pirate ;)
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