Music Download

A music download refers to the transferring of a music file from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment if required.

Legal music downloads typically involved the a purchase of a song or album available for downloading on the Internet. Downloading music first became popular with file sharing technologies such as peer-to-peer networks, with people breaking copyright laws by not paying for any of it. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claimed that this practice was damaging the music industry, and a series of law suits led to many of these networks being closed down. However, those who support such technologies argued that the music industry said the same thing about recordable tapes and CDs, and even when recorded music came out as before then artists got their money through live performance, and that the industry should embrace the advancements in technology rather than enforce prohibitions on the practice. Very little publishable academic research has been done to clarify this form of massive consumer behavior.

There is a great deal of freely available music online, which is distributed by the copyright holders for various reasons. (For instance, some university orchestras have high-quality recordings of their performances.) This fully legitimate free music is often overlooked by the popular media and is hardly a new development on the Internet.

The second phase of music downloading was the online music store, whereby songs could be downloaded at a price. In 2003, iTunes saw the popularity of legal digital downloads skyrocket. Other online websites include URGE, Napster and MSN's Music store. Ad-Supported music stores are now starting to show up such as Spiralfrog and Qtrax which do not charge for music downloads but instead, sell advertising space to pay for the music downloads. As of 2007, a third phase of downloading has now begun. Technical innovations allow for the near instant downloadng of real-time, radio broadcasted songs; straight to a listener-user's mobile phone and computer, such as DROPme in Sweden. The sales of downloaded music has now surpassed the sales of 'physical copies' in some countries; this has been indicated in the UK where "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley reached the top spot in the UK Singles Chart based on download sales alone^[1]. Furthermore, many artists do not offer additional content, or release extended versions of their albums in music stores to offset the loss of physical content present in CD packaging, making digital music sales more viable for the listener.