File sharing downloads-article

ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING: THE TRUE STORY    

 

Alright, admit it! You’ve all illegally downloaded something before. Whether it be music or films, we’ve all done it. But is it really affecting the music industry more than we actually tend to think? Or are all the artists exaggerating just so we buy their music for them to earn more money?

Firstly, let’s look at the different advantages and disadvantages of illegal downloading (AKA file-sharing). Firstly, file-sharing downloads are so much quicker and easier for you to download music or films. Just think about it, you can be at home relaxing on your bed and all of a sudden you think of a song from your childhood memories. You want to listen to it instantly, don’t you? So you get out your mobile phone or laptop, and you download it there and then. Boom! You feel like a child again listening to your music from your past.  

However, on the other hand you could argue that with all these different types of file-sharing downloads, you’re bound to have one that is filled with a various amount of viruses. These can in an instant turn your phone or laptop into a type of playground for viruses. They can range from making your phone slow or even messing with the entire system of your laptop, and it’s definitely not worth it just for a film that is going to come on Channel 4 eventually, even if it is a few years down the line.

Do you want to know just how much file-sharing downloads have affected the entertainment industry? From 2004-2009 alone, approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks and that leads on to my next statistic. In the decade since file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 47 percent, from £9.3 billion to £4.9 billion.

Personally, I think that file-sharing downloads are better because as the world is advancing technologically all the time there is no reason for it not to be advancing in the music industry. Nowadays people prefer things to be on their doorstep and so file-sharing downloads are the most popular things out there right now. I have a Blackberry so the website that I use to download music is tubidy.com. All you have to do is type your song into the search box and download mp3, consequently you have your music into your phone ready for you to listen.