Found Around: Why People File-Share: A Closer Look
Written by Guest Author Posted in: Found Around on November 01, 2010
The rise of P2P file sharing has been one of the largest contributors to the changing landscape of today’s music industry. Introduced to the mainstream in 1999 with Napster, file sharing remains one of the industry’s most controversial topics of discussion. On the one hand, it is almost single handedly responsible for starting the resistance against the oligopolistic grip of major record labels, stripping them of their financial control. Yet as a result, the profit structure of the entire industry seems to have been completely upturned, leaving artists of all levels struggling to maintain and generate revenue. Even with services like iTunes, Pandora, Spotify and RDIO popping up and monetizing streaming music and downloads, Internet piracy still moves free product at a comparison rate of over 10 to 1. While it can be argued that file sharing provides an excellent source of exposure and promotion, it still does not make up for the decrease of almost one billion dollars annually that the industry has taken as a result. One thing that’s for sure is that fans are simply unwilling to spend money on music like they used to. But why? Music Think Tank has been investigating this issue for the past few weeks and has compiled a very interesting set of answers that help shed light on this issue. Whether you agree with their stance on the matter or not, it's an interesting take on file sharing. Read their article and share your thoughts in the comments below!
-Evan
(MTT) The Real and ONLY Reasons Why Fans File-Share Music
credit: Kyle Bylin as seen on Music Think Tank
Thus far, we’ve looked at eight reasons why fans file-share music. First Four | Last Four Mainly, they’re unaware of the number of legal and alternative options to consume music that are available; they want to hear music and grow to like the songs before they buy them; or they don’t know the artist, either not well enough or at all, or don’t trust them, due to recent line-up or sound changes. Rebuilding that trust takes time and isn’t easy. As well, fans file-share music when there’s too many hoops to jump through on an artist’s website or because the offer that the artist made, whether by price, package, or delivery, was terrible. Next, we looked at the role that the biases of digital technologies play into file-sharing—the different ranges of social behavior they promote in audiences.
