Downloading still an issue for students and artists

By Kirsten Coachman
The Collegian

In 1999, Napster brought illegal music downloading to the forefront of technology and started a trend that continues today.

A recent national survey showed more than one-third of college students are illegally downloading music from peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

Now Napster has joined other legal downloading programs, such as iTunes, which sells individual songs for $.99. The survey said only 39 percent of college students pay for music downloads.

Thirty-nine percent of college student said file sharing from peer-to-peer networks should be free of charge.

“In today’s society, I believe that file-sharing is something which should be held and respected,” health science major Levi Martinez said.

Martinez said a person should have the right to do whatever they want with an album they spent their own money for.

“I am for ripping [music] off CDs, because you bought the CD. But as for downloading music, or say movies or whatever, in a way I feel it’s a bad thing, but it kind of helps the artist also. It gets their name out there,” Martinez said.

She said mainstream artists should be thought of differently than independent ones.

“If you’re somebody that isn’t in the mainstream, maybe having your music downloaded is something that you want, because people are going to start listening to you. If you’re one of the TRL artists or billboard artist, then you don’t want that, because [people downloading music] are taking away from the money that you should be having. All in all, I think I am for downloading music,” Martinez said.

Martinez said the cost of CDs is one reason people download music off the Internet.

"No one wants to spend $12.95 on a CD, because maybe you only want one or two songs that are good on the album. Maybe they would rather download those two hit singles,” Martinez said.

Candice Richards, a kinesiology major said downloading music is a compromise students and the record companies need to be make.

“I think that for students, it’s efficient, because music costs a lot, and when you don’t have that much money and you want music, it’s very convenient to go online and get music. It’s very easy,” Richards said.

Alice 96.7 radio disc jockey Scott Lander said he feels strongly about illegal downloading affecting the record companies.

“The record industry has been hemorrhaging, just hemorrhaging money. It’s kind of leveled out a little bit, but they still are not doing as well as it was 10 years ago. [Downloading] is bad for business. It’s bad for the artist,” Lander said. “When the Internet first kind of started to make an appearance, there was a lot of talk about it happening, but no one really believed it. And now it’s just obvious that it’s there, it can’t be denied. It has to be dealt with. I think record companies are doing the best they can to stay afloat,” Lander said

Lander said people download music because of cost of CDs, but mainly because the music is available on the Internet. Martinez, Richards and Lander disagree with record companies suing people for downloading music.

“I see a better way of handling the situation. Maybe [record companies] should put codes that prevents users from downloading or ripping the songs off the albums. As for individuals doing it, I don’t think that’s the appropriate way. There’s a point being made that you shouldn’t download or pirate music, but as for my opinion, I think it is kind of harsh,” Martinez said.

Lander said he is aware of people blatantly ripping off artists’ music, but thinks a lot of the people that have been prosecuted for downloading music did not necessarily deserve to be made examples of.

“I don’t think they should sue people. They’re just trying to get music. It’s a pretty simple idea. There’s the Internet, they know how to do it, they want their music. They don’t have to pay through the nose for it, there it is. I think it’s pretty innocent in a way,” Lander said.

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