MUSIC INDUSTRY AND ONLINE PIRACY
In the wake of the worldwide spread of the internet and the continual flow, sometimes uncontrollable, of information it implies, the music trade is going through a controversial period between its industry and piracy. Online music piracy can be defined as the illegal downloading of music materials without paying for it, and is considered as theft (RIAA 2012). The question that arises from this phenomenon is « does music piracy jeopardize its industry ? »It is argued that the music industry is likely to disappear progressively because of illegal downloading. In order to answer this question, this essay will first deal with the threat piracy represents, then it will argue that the music industry is not really in danger and, eventually, it will try to find the balance between these two arguments. Online piracy hinders the music industry and everything that is related to it. From an economic point of view, illegal downloading can be perceived as an important threat as it undermines its economy and discourages potential investors (IFPI 2012). Since the emergence of the P2P (peer-topeer) system and not legally qualified sharing websites in the early 2000s, which consists in sharing all types of files between the users, the music business economy has crumbled and is still crumbling. Indeed, between 2006 and 2011, worldwide recording industry underwent a sharp drop of $13.2 bn (from $33.2 bn to $19.9 bn) in its incomes from physical products (eMarketer n.d. Cited in SiteRapture n.d.). One of the main factor that can explain this important decrease is that 28% of internet users in the world have recourse to unlicensed websites every month (IFPI 2012). Moreover, in 2007, 57% of illegal downloaders hardly ever buy or do not even buy the music they download, 30% purchase less CDs and only 6% buy more (IFPI 2008). In terms of unit (that is to say songs), in 2009, over 40 billion songs were illegally downloaded reaching an astonishing rate...