The Moral Dilemma: To pay or not to pay?

Virtually anything and everything is readily available for free on today’s Internet. So who’s to stop anyone from ever having to dip into his or her wallets again to purchase music? When it comes to obtaining songs for free, the young generation possesses a carefree attitude about the ramifications of not paying for music. And it’s not that they aren’t aware, they simply lack discretion. But why would they pay? Websites like dirpy, an online conversion site, directly transfers youtube links into mp3 format, and downloads them straight into your iTunes with the click of a button.

Some artists have become conscious of the fact that their music is not receiving the credit it deserves. In an effort to show that file-sharers weren’t simply taking advantage of the artist, Radiohead took a step away from the norm. Their 2007 release, In Rainbows, marked a unique case in which the band left the decision of whether or not to pay up to their fans. To no surprise, statistics found that over half (roughly 62%) of Radiohead’s supporters opted to pay nothing for the album. And even with the no-pay option, In Rainbows was shared approximately 2.3 million times. But why on earth world would fans do that? “The venue hypothesis”, an idea developed by Will Page (chief economist at the MCPS-PRS Alliance) and Eric Garland (CEO of Big Champagne), provides a clearer explanation. According to the theory, even if the price of a record is zero, people return to music acquisition methods that have worked for them in the past. Money aside, simply put the file sharing community is lazy. Convenience trumps all in today’s fast paced society, and unless more harsh regulations are placed upon illegal downloading, the young generation will continue to stick to their habits of free music downloading.