A main issue of consumers, concerning this debate, is the offensive price set on compact discs. Instead of spending nearly twenty dollars per compact disc, consumers are finding it much more reasonable to illegally download the songs they want. The risk is very minimal. Many people do not even realize what they are doing is wrong. The rewards are outweighing the consequences.

Consumers are lazy and very cost-effective. We want to lounge in our comfortable office chairs and download free music, instead of having to go to the store and pay nearly twenty dollars on an album t

During my research for this paper, I came across an article written by Janis Ian, a recording artist of the seventies. She has taken the devil’s advocate and stated that downloading is actually good for artists. Ian says that when Napster was running, she polled persons that came to her site, and asked how many of them came because of downloading her songs? She wound up with about 100 a month, and of those approximately 15% bought one of her compact discs. Many stated that they never would have bought her CD otherwise. Some had never even heard of her before sampling her songs.

They recording industry has succeeded in making downloading illegal. They have even been successful in subpoenaing companies to give up names of their employees suspected of illegal downloading. They are now trying to hold ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) accountable for the illegal downloading of consumers. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is just a lobbying group, meaning that they are permitted to make large contributions to politicians and their parties, but now that is how politics works, isn’t it? Though it makes one wonder how many of these court rulings are actually unbiased?

So back to the question, why do people download? I believe many want to sample new music. Some want music that is no longer in circulation, or just hard to find. You cannot even get good music on the radio anymore. Stations keep playing the same top ten songs over and over every hour, by the end of the week I never want to hear the song again. Then there are those people like me who hear an awesome song from an artist, but are afraid to buy the entire compact disc for just one song. Twenty dollars is a lot of money for an experiment.

Some topics in this essay:
Ian Napster, Nonsense Consumers, Illegal Downloading, Association America, Janis Ian, Service Providers, recording industry, record companies, twenty dollars, compact disc, illegal downloading, paid sites, compact discs, file sharing, trying compromise paid, music getting, nearly twenty dollars, compromise paid, compromise paid sites,