Fans have always and will aways find ways of getting their hands on free music: from mix tapes in the 80s to burning CDs in the 90s to downloading era of the 2000s.
The Internet is not by any means a new phenomenon, yet it still has the music industry reeling. Napster is ancient history, but BitTorrent is en vogue and iTunes is here to stay. Today's listeners have access to seemingly infinite amounts of music for free, and the Recording Industry doesn't like it one bit.
Stripped From the Headlines:
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In 2003 the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sued a 12 year old NYC honors student, Brianna LaHara for the music she downloaded from Kazaa.
But you know, those saints at the RIAA decided to quickly settle Brianna's case for a mere $2,000. How generous...in 2003 Brianna lived with her mother and 9 year old brother in Section 8 Housing in New York City.
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This $675,000 was for 30 songs, for a total of $22,500 payout per song.
The RIAA was pleased with the verdict. "We are grateful for the jury’s service and their recognition of the impact of illegal downloading on the music community," the RIAA said in a statement. "We appreciate that Mr. Tenenbaum finally acknowledged that artists and music companies deserve to be paid for their work...We only wish he had done so sooner rather than lie about his illegal behavior."
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From bullying grammar school children to suing loan-ridden graduate students, the RIAA has effectively publicly humiliated a few randomly-selected offenders while broadcasting their stance on the issue. They have repeatedly blamed file-sharing and downloading for this decade's plummeting CD sales, irreparably damaging the music business and ultimately decimating the individual artists' revenue.
Jack Rabid, editor of the fanzine the Big Takeover, said in Greg Kot's book Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music
, "The only bands who have to worry about the Internet cutting into their sales are the people who make lousy albums"Thanks to the internet, true music fans no longer have to be force-fed mainstream musical drivel that comprises many of the big-labels' singles. There are now a tremendous number of opportunities for new good music to find an audience. With opportunity comes responsibility: artists now must be computer-savvy and creatively find ways of generating revenue that is not dependent on album sales.
" on their website for digital download. Fans could download the entire album for any price they saw fit, even if that price was $0.Radiohead may have been the first to (willingly) give their album away for free online, but bands have always found creative ways of distributing their new stuff. In 2004 Prince bundled copies of his album "Musicology
" with the price of his arena tour tickets, so that each fan that came to a show on that tour received a free copy. 
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The Music Industry is in a state of flux, that is true. The internet is a blessing for brand new artists, a way to reach out directly, and most importantly get their music heard by new ears that would not necessarily have been listening otherwise.
On the other hand some established artists and music-business folks - those whom succeeded in a pre-internet world - are having a hard time adapting to this new musical egalitarianism that the internet provides.
Time to stop whining, jump on the bandwagon or get left in the dust. People will always find ways to get music for free, the sooner you accept that fact with open arms and a creative mind, the better.
Interesting Fact: The Beatles music is not available on iTunes. Talk about missing out on a massive untapped revenue source, but hey.
Maybe someday we'll be able to legally download "Yellow Submarine
". Someday...
". Someday...
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