Free music downloading is a popular trend on the Internet. Read ahead in this article to find out more...
There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~Lord Byron
Music
is a way to express, to unwind but most of all it is a way to connect
with your inner self and enjoy as you lose yourself to the rhythm
divine! Music lovers will agree that music is not just a way to pass
time or a means of recreation; music can become a daily necessity.
Hip-hop, country, rap, jazz, ballads, classical, no matter what your
style is, the Internet has the works to offer you, and that too without
shelling out big bucks for your daily music dose!
Free Music Download
The
whole concept of free music download or music sharing over the Internet
became popular with music sharing over peer-to-peer networks. Napster
was the first popular music file sharing service that made way for other
decentralized P2P file sharing programs such as Limewire, Kazaa,
Morpheus, iMesh and Bearshare.
Copyright Issues
Although
most of the music file sharing networks became a rage with the online
music lovers who could download their favorite music for free, all the
owners of these networks soon faced a lot of copyright infringement
problems. The Recording Industry Association of America admonished that
this practice was detrimental to the music industry. While a series of
lawsuits led to closing down of many of the online music sharing
networks, on the other hand, supporters of technology advocated that the
new age of downloading and sharing should be accepted as a part of the
new communication media that facilitate easy and free transfer of music
files over the internet. People who fathomed the extensive reach of the
dotcom world realized that it was a great way to reach millions of music
lovers and hence embraced it. However many conformist music aficionados
detest the idea of sharing music over the Internet till date.
Free Music Download Sites by Artists
While
most of the members of the music fraternity are opposed to the online
music downloads, there are some like the famous rocker Bryan Adams, who
has adopted this development and also has links to free downloads on his
official website. Online free music download is a very popular trend
and still continues to provide millions of users with free music files
that can be easily downloaded. Others in line are Nine Inch Nails' Trent
Reznor who have put up their music for free. In 2005, they also
released their full-length album, With Teeth on their MySpace page, even
before its official in store release date.
Many other artists
allow music downloads on their websites. However, most of the time, it
is a short preview of their song or at times the quality of the music
sample offered is not very good. Some artists, for example Metallica,
play safe and have incorporated services on their official web site that
allow legal purchase of their music. Often free downloads are offered
by the artists as promotional tools to endorse their music over the
Internet which easily reaches a large number of audience across the
world.
The Downside of Free Music Downloading
One of the
most hazardous implications of free music downloads is the spreading of
bootleg recordings. A bootleg recording is a musical recording that has
not been officially released by an artist or their production companies
but is out on the Internet. It can be a demo, or some studio bytes or
even recordings of a live performance. Music enthusiasts have coined the
term bootleg to differentiate these files from the pirated copies of
commercially released material. However these so-called bootleg
recordings are still protected by copyright and their distribution is
against the law. Many people are also known to sell copyrighted material
and peddle illegal prints in the market.
Legal Music Downloading
Legal
music downloading has been catching up and striving to sustain itself
in the age of free music downloading. The legal music download allows
users to download music after they have paid a certain minimum amount of
membership charges. Some sites also function on cost per download basis
where every download comes at a fixed rate, which can be as less as 99
cents. Legal music downloading is a way to strike a balance between the
copyright issues and providing easy and cheap download service for music
lovers. Due to minimalist costs and the legal pressures many users find
it convenient to use legal downloading sites.
The Final Verdict
Well,
as for the staunch believers of copyright laws, take note that sharing
of music files or media files for that matter cannot be completely
monitored or controlled by anyone. Even if you stop offering downloads,
this is the age of social networking and Internet citizens go out of
their way to share their copyrighted original versions with their fellow
netizens. You can hate it or like it but you have to accept it! Online
music downloading and music sharing is inevitable! Well let us just end
this argument with a quote from Bryan Adams, the man himself, Kids think
it's free and as long as people are getting to hear it and are enjoying
it, why try and fight it?
By Uttara Manohar
