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Napster: The affect on album sales Napster is a computer program written in 1998, by Shawn Fanning, while he was a student at Northeastern University. It allows us to download songs for free from other people that have the program. There has been a lot of debate on whether Napster helps or harms album sales. Several studies give us mixed signals on the impact of this music-sharing software. Music Executives, and artists like Dr. Dre and Metallica, believe that Napster is hurting the music industry.
They are suing Napster for copyright infringement because they believe they are losing millions of dollars, and therefore. Lawyers for the bands believe that Whether online or offline, it is illegal to copy and distribute someone elses work in a way that deprives them of income (Vogelstein, par. 8). They believe that anyone getting or distributing music over the Internet is breaking the law. Napster's lawyers say that Napster isnt buying and selling music illegally. They dont own or distribute the music itself.
People are downloading music from other people and sharing it with each other. Even though Napster only operates the servers that enable users to search for music, the record labels still believe that they should be held liable. Music companies want the courts to shut those servers down. Several studies suggest that shutting down Napster will hurt album sales. Rolling Stone magazine recently asked 5, 000 readers whether they have bought fewer CDs now that music is available for free online, and only eight percent said yes.
Most of the readers, fifty-four percent, said their buying habits havent changed, and thirty-six percent said they are buying more (Hansen, par. 3). Another study by Greenfield Online and Youth Stream Media Networks of college students found that two-thirds of the people who admitted to downloading songs said they did it to preview music before purchasing it. This study also finds that nearly eighty percent of the people who use Napster said they still plan to buy CDs. One of those people is my friend Jimmy Leon. He likes to download a couple of songs from an album before he goes out and buys it. He said, Id be more likely to download a song and get an album if I liked it.
If anything, Napster has made me want to buy more. Its kind of like listening to the radio. He is saying that if he didnt have the option to sample a song before he buys the album, then he would buy less music. Other people buy music even after theyve downloaded it from Napster because they prefer having a CD they can play in another part of the house, instead of listening on an MP 3 player or computer. Searching for and downloading music can be exhausting, Jimmy said.
If you want to get a whole album, it takes awhile. Its more trouble than its worth. The danger for record companies is that there are a lot of people like Jimmy, and the battle to shut down Napster could come at the expense of their best customers. According to a new study from the Internet research firm, Jupiter Communications, people who use Napster and other file-swapping networks to trade music, are more likely to boost their music spending than those who dont use such services.
Jupiter said it surveyed more than 2, 200 online music fans about whether the money they spent on music purchases had increased, decreased, or remained the same since they began visiting music destinations on the Web. People between the ages of eighteen to twenty-four, who spend less than twenty dollars on music within a three month period, indicated that they were likely to remain at a constant purchasing level despite online music use. All other groups said they had increased spending as a result of online music use. Jupiter analyst Aram Sinnreich said Because Napster users are music enthusiasts, its logical to believe that they are more likely to purchase now and increase their music spending in the future.
Sinnreich said the report is a further indication that the music industry should embrace file sharing technology rather than pursue lawsuits aimed at shutting down the companies behind it (Hansen, par. 5) In his testimony, Hank Barry, Napster's CEO, said One study found that ninety five percent of the files downloaded through Napster are eventually deleted. That shows that fans are using the service to sample music, not keep it. The establishment of Napster could explain why music sales, in general, are up this year. According to Sounds can, there were 355 million albums sold in the first six months of 2000, vs. 332 million in the same period last year. Thats an increase of seven percent (Hansen, par. 2). N Sync, Britney Spears and Eminem all had explosive first-week sales records.
These studies suggest that Napster has a positive impact on album sales. Napster can also help album sales through marketing. Recently, rap rockers Limp Bizkit, and rappers Cypress Hill, signed a deal with Napster to perform free shows for a month nationwide. Napster will pick up the $ 1. 8 million tour tab.
Nowadays you can go on Napster and hear the Limp Bizkit single, said Fred Durst, the bands singer. If you like it, go get it. Its a cool way to make sure your sixteen dollars are being spent well (Cohen, par. 5). After Limp Bizkit's Napster tour was over, their album sales went up by seventeen percent (Cohen, par. 6).
This shows that Napster's huge popularity can be used successfully to promote an upcoming album. Another artist that sees this new trend and supports it is rapper Chuck D. He thinks: Its among the most positive developments ever for musicians. It will expose more music to more people, because artists wont have to fight the big record labels for space in stores.
By shrinking the power of the middlemen, musicians will keep more of the proceeds from the sale of their record, which right now is about one dollar per CD (Vogelstein, par. 3). I think Chuck D. is right in saying that Napster is better for musicians because the record labels are making most of the profit from the albums. If the artists were to somehow use Napster to eliminate that middleman than they would be able to make a lot more money.
He also believes that Napster will increase album sales: I just go by logic that people will want to hear something before they buy it. If I got turned on by an artist after I heard something for free, I would go out and buy it. Thats too logical for people in the music industry to understand. (Vogelstein, par. 4). Other people dont agree with Chuck D.
They believe that Napster has a negative affect on album sales. This point can be seen through a conversation I had with my friend Cindy, who likes the Backstreet Boys, Creed and Savage Garden. I havent bought a CD in two years, she says. Whenever she hears a song she likes, she tells her friend to burn her a copy of the CD she wants.
The music industry has lived in fear that there are thousands of people like Cindy, costing them millions of dollars. My friend Alex, a student at Stony Brook University, is another example. He downloaded music by Limp Bizkit, the Dave Matthews Band and others until his university blocked access to Napster. I buy less, he said. Theres no point to buying it if you can just download it. A study by Reciprocal Inc.
found that sales of recorded music near college campuses declined by four percent between the first three months of 1998 and the same period this year. Sales at all stores went up twelve percent during the same time. The same study also indicated that, the more songs that Napster users download, the more likely they are to cut back on music purchases. Even though sales overall went up, the music industry still contends that the study by Reciprocal Inc. shows how file sharing can cut into sales. This study was used as evidence in court papers by The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its lawsuit against Napster.
The Riaa's worst fear is that people will eventually stop buying albums because of this free alternative. They think that because Napster introduced this service at no cost, it will be hard to convince people to go out and pay for the albums. When Metallica decided to sue Napster, many of their fans became angry at them. I dont see why Metallica and the others are mad, Alex said. Theyre still making tons of money. Obviously, the fans are feeling alienated, said Noah Stone, a singer-songwriter who formed Artists Against Piracy to fight against Napster.
Theres no question about that, but the message needs to be clarified. This is about a company that co-opted other peoples copyrights, and they intended to profit from them without compensating the people who owned the copyrights (Hansen, par. 5). Even though Mr. Stone may be right, the industry cant ignore the clear message from fans that they want to get music quickly and easily through the Internet. The race is on to find a solution, Stone said. The musician Prince suggests: Poor treatment of fans has left record companies with little reservoir of good will.
All they care about is that kids on the Internet are downloading MP 3 s of the one hit song on the latest crappy release they put out with a huge promotional campaign, hoping to sell two million copies of the album, when there is actually only one decent song on it. They dont care about copyright infringement. They only care about lost sales (Vogelstein, par. 6). RIAA chief executive Hilary Rosen said that: Unauthorized file swapping allowed by Napster is wrong whether or not it can be ultimately proven to cause economic harm. I dont think it matters at all whether weve been economically hurt. I think that if I own my shirt and you borrow it, it doesnt matter whether or not I have another shirt.
Youre just not entitled to borrow it without my permission. And if you have a copyright asset, that is the principle of copyright that you get to control and own your own work, and other people dont get to profit from it without your permission (Cohen, par. 2). The RIAA says that such theft costs the United States recording industry at least $ 300 million a year in lost sales. Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich says Its sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is (Cohen, par. 4). I think the idea that money is not the issue here, is bogus. Music executives want us to believe that its the principle of stealing another persons art is whats on trial.
The only reason they care about the copyright is because they could lose money from a drop in record sales. For them, the Napster law suit has everything to do with money and nothing to do with principle. I believe that the best way to end this debate is by some sort of compromise. As a Napster user myself, I think that its great that I dont have to spend money on CDs. The only problem is that, if I were an artist, and people were getting my work for free, I would feel exactly the same way Metallica and Dr. Dre feel.
Thats why the record labels, artists, and Napster need to find a solution that would please everybody. The best idea that I could come up with is a monthly bill for downloading music from Napster. That way, everybody thats involved in the lawsuit would make money, because thats what its really about. Theres only one problem with that idea, but it can be overcome. Because people are now used to getting Napster for free, they might be reluctant to subscribe to this service.
I think that those people will eventually change their minds when they realize what they are missing. Ric Dube, an analyst with Web noize, an entertainment industry research group, captures the idea best. He says, If for fifteen dollars a month you could download all the music you wanted, chat with your favorite stars, and get first dibs on concert tickets, youd pay for that, wouldnt you (Vogelstein, par. 12)?
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