Sometimes the best things in life are free and one of those things has become music, which is being downloaded illegally from students at De Anza College.
On Thursday, five De Anza College students were interviewed and four out of five said they download music illegally. Some of the sites that they said they use are limewire, vuze, frostwire, and a variety of blogs.
These four students are one out of many who download music illegally and according to USA Today the record industry has announced that their biggest customers are college students.
When a seventeen year old De Anza student who like the rest of the students asked to remain anonymous for fear of criminal prosecution was asked how many of her friends download music illegally she said most do and they say, “Why should I pay for something that I could get for free?”
“I don’t feel bad about downloading music where the artist is signed by a label because I don’t want to give them any of my money. But with independent artists who are not signed by a label or who have their own label I would buy it, said a 19-year-old De Anza student.
Some of the ways that they said they would support an artist is by paying to see them live at a concert and buying their merchandise. Now whether they would continue to illegally download it or buy it with their own money is not certain.
"The sense of invulnerability that students often have is part of the problem," RIAA President Cary Sherman says. "Our research shows that many university students are still under the misimpression that taking the songs for free from the Internet is OK. ... Hopefully, the lawsuits will clarify the situation,” the USA Today reported.
When asked if they felt it was morally wrong all five De Anza College students said yes they did feel bad about it but they continue to download.
According to the magazine USA Today, the Beverly Hills company,Big Champagne, which tracks unauthorized file sharing networks, stated that swapping use is up 24% since the third quarter of 2003.
A twenty-year-old De Anza College student said, “There are two ways for artists to look at this one they realize that they will be able to be exposed to so many more people or two they can think that they are loosing money.”
Another twenty-year-old De Anza College student agreed saying, “The only way that an artist gets signed by a label is if they have a fan base.”
The famous British rock band Radiohead decided to take their destiny into their own hands and cut all ties with their label. They offer their music online on a pay-what-you-wish basis, which Radiohead says has been successful according to UK Entertainment Times.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Radiohead said, “It worked on two or three different levels. The first level is just sort of getting a point across that we wanted to get across about music being valuable. It also worked as a way of using the Internet to promote your record, without having to use iTunes or Google or whatever…and it also worked financially."
A musician is nothing without his or her fans and his new innovative approach might be the answer to this solution.
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