Survey results show there’s no strong consensus regarding the impact of online file sharing on artists. Of those surveyed, 35% agreed with the statement that file sharing service are not bad for artist because they help promote and distribute the work of the artist, 23% agreed with the statement that file sharing service are not bad for the artist because of the work of the artist can be copied without permission or payment, while 35% of those surveyed actually agreed with both of the foregoing statement.
I believe that file sharing is no different from how fans enjoyed music in the past. Music is a social phenomenon that we share without friends and loved ones. We have always used whatever media and technologies were available to discover new artists, try out new tunes, and find rare recording labels. It’s free promotion for the recording labels. It’s how you create fans.
It used to be vinyl albums and tapes. Today it’s CD and MP3.You get a song from a friends CD, off the air, or the P2P network, listen to it, make duplicates , create mixes… and if you really like it, you buy your own CD, go to the concerts, and pass it along to others.
The concept of stealing requires a monetary loss. If I steal CD from a store, the store has to buy a replacement CD – clear loss. But if I share a file, what is the financial harm? There is no physical product that’s been taken or diminished. There indeed are real music pirates. They have CD manufacturing plants that flood the streets with fake CDs and are affiliated with organized crime. They’re not individual file sharing consumers.
Perhaps, the financial impact is indirect. A consumer level research shows that people who share files are more likely to buy the music than people who don’t share. So the result of file sharing is more sales, not less.
On an industry level, while RIAA cries about losing billions of dollars due to file sharing, studies have little if any true effect. The reality is there are plenty of reasons for lower sales that have nothing to do with the P2P networks. We’re in a recession; the music industry has severely cut back releases 25% and abandoned the older consumer market. Given all that, sales only dropped 4.1%. The surprise is that music sales aren’t depressed even more. If file sharing is a cause, it has had a positive impact and not a negative one.
