How Does Illegally Downloading Music Affect Musicians?

Let's take a look at some of the ways in which musicians are affected by illegally downloading music.

Money

When you go to the store and purchase a CD or when you go online and buy some songs for your iPod, a percentage of those proceeds go to the actual recording artist.

Musicians lose money when music is illegally downloaded. If you are getting your music for free in an illegal manner, none of that money is ever getting to the artist. Even for musicians who are worth millions of dollars, it still is not fair that they cannot get royalties from their music just because you want to get it for free.

Quality and Reputation

When songs are illegally distributed on the Internet, artists have to worry about maintaining their reputation through the quality of music that people are downloading. Oftentimes, when music is not distributed legally, something is lost in the quality. What exactly is lost and how exactly it is lost can vary from case to case, but whether it is through burning, transfering, etc. problems arise with how the music is supposed to sound.

Downsides of Illegally Downloading Music

When you really think about how illegal downloading affects musicians, you begin to see that it is a big problem. It is not just a matter of a music artist losing a few dollars here and there. These artists primarily depend upon the revenue from their songs to survive, and if no one buys their music, they are going to crash financially and not be able to continue on with their jobs. Furthermore, their ability as songwriters and singers is in question when the quality of their work is destroyed through downloading, burning, etc. methods.