Three men introduced Napster to the Internet in 1999 and the music industry steadily lost revenue during the 13 years that followed. Peer-to-peer file sharing programs such as Napster have risen and fallen since then, and the millennial generation has grown alongside them.
In 2013, the music industry saw its first increase in revenue since 1999. Still, listeners illegally share music online, often through torrent-file distribution websites.
“I personally disagree with it,” said Spencer Morris, a sophomore in civil engineering and self-recording artist. “Artists take time to write and record their music. That’s their job, it’s what they put their time into.”
Morris recently put out an EP, “Residence,” which he recorded by himself under the artist name Cavalier Kids. The EP is on Noisetrade, a website which offers a download of the music and the option to tip the artist anywhere from $1 to $25.
“If I were trying to sell my music, I’d be sort of mad if someone told me they’d torrented all my albums,” Morris said. “I’d be glad they’re enjoying it and all, but I’d still feel like they owed me something … Artists get most of their money from shows, but there’s still a lot from record sales.”
As it turns out, an artist’s income depends on the record label. For big, well-known labels, the artist usually gets about $2 per album sold. Artists who publish independently, on the other hand, usually receive around $9 per album.
“[Torrenting] hurts musicians, no doubt,” said Anna Wolfe, a senior in communication-media.
Wolfe started an anti-torrenting software company — located online at jant.us — with Trent McKenzie, a senior in electrical engineering. The company aims to use software to give the artists feedback and to help them save and earn money.
“I’m not going to admit to [torrenting music] in a public way, but it’s extremely common,” Wolfe said. “We need a better way to distribute music than through piracy and buying every single song.”
McKenzie said he would like for more users to be able to get music for free, as it helps for a wider distribution of music.
“[Torrenting] is a creative way to get things for free,” said McKenzie, who also performs in a band that led to the development of the company. “Content owners are losing revenue, but there’s a wider distribution of their work.”
Wolfe said that as music distribution movers toward a digital market, there are fewer ways to protect it from public torrenting websites.
“You don’t want to buy it before you’ve listened to it, without experiencing it first,” Wolfe said.
Morris said he hasn’t torrented music since his sophomore year of high school.
“But I do pass around physical CDs with my friends,” Morris said. “It’s not illegal and someone out of a smaller group of people [than the Internet] had to buy the music.”
Wolfe recently started as the campus representative for Spotify, a legal digital music streaming service.
“Hopefully services like Spotify will catch on and people won’t feel like they have to torrent music [but] just to listen to it,” Wolfe said.
