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Misael Ortega
Professor Santosh Khadka
English 113B T/TH 11:00
17 May 2016

Perks or Crime
With each year that passes by, Technology is advancing in many aspects. With the
creation of the Internet we have the power of knowledge in just a click of a button. But people do
not use the Internet with good intentions, instead they use it to hack or view illegal things in the
Internet. One of these things is illegally downloaded music, it may seem funny to some and even
most of us but there is a handful of people who download music with out paying. With
technology advancing each decade we see a huge difference in music. It has evolved from
cassette to CDs and to IPod. The IPod completely changed the market because now you are able
to buy just that one awesome song from your favorite artist instead of buying the entire album
that included some songs you most likely dislike and we will be helping the artists. Although
music firms have made it easier for people to access music at a fairly good price, people still
manage to download music illegally causing injustice to the music industry especially to the
music artist.
Usually a lot of people continue to download music illegally because they havent
been caught. I saw this image on Google (7) and thought about the words it had. You can click
but you cant hide, What it basically tries to project is that there will always be that history that
shows what you have done through the Internet. I thought it was powerful because this means
that all of our searches, downloads, posts, basically anything youve done in a computer and
Internet is recorded. This means there is no hiding from illegal stuff that has been downloaded.
This can affect anyone because the mistakes from the past will haunt you in the future when you

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get caught. With the simple fact that you download just one song thats on average one dollar and
a few cents comes a fee that exceed $20,000 and this can be accessed easily with a few clicks.
Even though less people download music legally than illegally, there are consequences to every
action.
I surveyed three individuals and two had same thoughts about how great it was to
download music illegally (Ezequiel(2), Suri(6)) but one had the same idea as me (Joseph(1)). I
asked the same question to all three of them, What do you think about illegally downloaded
music? The response was shocking because Ezequiel(2) said, I approve it, its a good way to
save money. He mentioned that he used to buy music but one day he downloaded an app and
thats where it all began. He mentioned that what he bought exceeded 500 songs and that was a
lot of money, and now that he gets music for free he has over a 1,000 songs. But did he really
save money, if he gets caught? Suri(6), the other person I interviewed said she could not afford
all the music she accessed for free. She said it was a lot and paying a dollar at least would be a
waste of money when there are many resources out there. I was really disappointed with the
response but everyone ha their own view. Joseph(1) mentioned how he wouldnt do it that it was
wrong and risky. Risky because if the people get caught there is a penalty and usually its a ticket
worth more than what youve downloaded. He said it was just not worth downloading a song for
free that is worth less than $2.00. So in other words its worth buying music because its the
correct thing to do instead of achieving it for free at a greater risk. A fact that made sense with
his response is that he is a musician and he wouldnt like it if people were to do the same with his
music.
It is common among teenagers to do such crime because most adults know that the
consequences are not worth the free music. There is always a certain group who fits in certain

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criteria and in this case the most illegally downloaded music are from 18-24 year olds. Rates are
significantly higher among college students, with approximately 60% to 90% of students
reporting having engaged in illegal file-sharing activities, said Marc M Jambon and Judith G
Smetana(5). What they mean by file-sharing is downloading music illegally with peers. Even
with the prohibition to these things people manage to not care. This is a message that brings
awareness, not a fight and teens should open their eyes and head before doing such things that
they will surely regret in the future.
The thing I have found to be one of the many causes to download music illegally is
that the prices for songs are not satisfying. This causes people to move to online websites and
download music the easy way, illegally. I noticed this a bit with the article(5) and with the one
person who approved illegally downloaded music in the survey. They both mentioned a bit of
economically saving money, and they both led to the same thing. So the article mentioned that if
there is a way to make music cheaper then there might be a percentage deduction of those who
download music illegally. I would agree but for now I think a dollar and a few cents is a good
price for a song.
We have seen the side of the consumer but not from the producer of music. With
YouTube, Spotify, and music easily downloaded for free off the internet, music artists are facing
the issue of losing financial compensation for their work, said article (4). We are conscious that
everyone needs a job and a pay. If we are downloading music for free then the artists arent
getting paid for their work. With illegally downloaded music going up the music industry is
going down. This same article includes and Example of Taylor Swift removing her music from
Spotify. Spotify is not free, users pay to use this source for their entertainment. But she is making
a stand, because it is her career and it shouldnt go down because of illegally downloaded music.

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We will end up being the cause of bad music because its like if we do not appreciate the music
they create. Artist need to see that there is compensation being brought in by their work(4).
Music has evolved and now artist have the rights to their work. Although music firms
have made it easier for people to access music at a fairly good price, people still manage to
download music illegally causing injustice to the music industry especially to the music artist. So
make the most out of this knowledge, its not a threat but a warning call because we need to
wake up and help our fellow artist. They depend on us because with out us they would have
nothing to continue this career, so lets help out. Hard work comes with sacrifices and artist have
done a lot for their career, so why sabotage it?

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Works Cited
Chavez, Joseph. Interview 2/13/16 (1)
Cortez, Ezequiel. Interview 2/17/16 (2)
Downloading." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 33.1 (2012): 31-39. (3)
"Downloading Music Illegally Harms Artists." University Wire, (2015): (4)
Jambon, Marc M, and Judith G Smetana."College Students' Moral Evaluations of Illegal Music
(5)
Leal, Suri. Interview 2/17/16 (6)
Peter Muller (2010): 2/15/16 < https://thetased.wordpress.com/category/product/>. (7)