Downloading is changing the lives of the people who make music and the people who love it - and it just might change the music, too.

Of the many ways we use the Internet - to find information, to shop, to play games - downloading music is one of the most popular. But whether a music lover downloads songs from a legal, paid subscription service (for a list, click here) or free tracks off a band's Web site, digital delivery of music is making a real difference in everyone's life.

If we file-swap illegally or copy a friend's CD onto our computer, we may think we're getting a great deal - music for free! The truth is that there is a real-life impact of illegal downloading on the people who make music and the fans like us who love it.

The music maker
The music business
The music fan
The future of music

The music maker
With the ever-shifting world of digital music technologies, the work and lives of music makers are changing dramatically.

Some artists say they benefit when people download, file-swap, or copy their music from friends. An up-and-coming band, for example, might see these technologies as a great way to get their music out and build a bigger fan base. But ultimately, this is about choice, and the band has chosen to make their music available to us. Others who work in the music business, like music mixers, songwriters and engineers, may think that unlicensed music-swapping Web sites or illegal copying of CDs hurts their ability to financially provide a good life for their families. These music makers don't often get a choice when we download their work without permission.

Not everyone who creates or sells music is a millionaire - in fact, most are far from it. Many music makers are just "making a living," and their livelihoods depend on the sales of the CDs they help create. Most musicians will tell us that they aren't making music for the money, but they still need to put food on the table. From the time a song is written until it appears on a CD sold in our local store, there are many people involved at every stage. Besides songwriters and musicians, there are arrangers, back-up singers, people who make and install recording equipment, studio personnel (schedulers, maintenance workers, recording and sound engineers), artists who design CD covers and printers who print them, computer professionals, truck drivers who deliver the CDs to stores - the list is virtually endless.

If music sales continue to drop because people are illegally swapping music on the Internet or copying their friends' CDs, then some of these people that work in the music industry might lose their jobs, and lose the ability to create cool new music for us! That could have a big impact on their ability to raise families, and on the economy as a whole. With less money to spend, they will buy fewer clothes and computers, take fewer vacations, etc. So illegally downloading a song or copying a friend's CD might just seem like free music to you and me - but it's costing someone else real money and having a real impact on the role music will be able (or unable) to play in our lives!
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The music business
Since the start of the music business, recording technology has enabled music fans to listen to their favorite tunes in unique and cutting-edge ways. Back in the day there were wax cylinders, vinyl, LP records, 8-track tapes, cassette tapes - now we're blasting our mini-discs, MP3 players, iPods and CD-Rs. And, newer, faster, more convenient digital technologies are being developed every day.

Because these new technologies hit the streets so fast, and have made music much easier to copy and pass around, the music industry is still trying to figure out how to make the best of the new digital delivery methods so people like us can rock the music we love easily and legally.

The explosion of music downloading has obviously had a big impact on the music business. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the number of infringing music files available on the Internet at any one time is estimated at 885 million. Record companies and some music stores - especially smaller ones - have had to close their doors because of the drop in CD sales. People have lost their jobs. We all probably know someone who has...
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The music fan
For millions of music fans, downloading music has become as regular as turning on a computer. Most do not think they are doing anything wrong. What could be better than getting the music we love right when we want it? Hearing the newest Dashboard Confessional song with the click of a button? Updating our personal soundtrack to reflect our mood? Downloading music has opened up a new world for music fans - allowing people to discover new music while exploring new ways to listen to it, whether it's on a computer, an MP3 player or a CD player.

We have more power than you may realize in the changing face of music. As music fans, we impact how much music gets produced, which bands tour in our city, and how music is distributed.

Fans have spoken - we want music online! - and the music industry has responded by offering us the downloading services we demanded (for a great list, click here). These legal downloading sites have thousands and thousands of songs available on the cheap and we don't have to download an entire album - we can buy just the specific songs we want. People are catching on to this, and it shows, according to The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry: the number total infringing music files are down 20 percent from the 1.1 billion peak in April 2003.

The future of music
Imagine a world where new music wasn't produced. Where great artists were discouraged from creating new songs. Where musicians stopped writing new beats because they knew it would be impossible to make a living. Whatever we each may think about music companies and the profits they make on music, the fact is that making records is expensive. It also costs money to discover, develop, and promote new talent. To keep relevant and new music alive, we need to support the music makers, doing everything from going to concerts to legally purchasing music.
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