Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Topic 3 - Music sharing online

Filesharing, online downloading and the 'networking of new material has changed the way in which music is consumed for the better. It enables the user to obtain their music easier and cheaper. Filesharing can easily be done either via email, or even by the means of msn, however i think the biggest improvement of technology for the user to listen to music is by the means of 'networking'. Sites like Youtube and Myspace allow the user to listen music that either produser's or even the artists themselves have loaded onto the inet. Songs that aren't even available to purchase are loaded on these websites for the fan/fans to listen to.

When music is shared via the inet and does not have the copyright holders consent, this is seen as illegal. Sites such as Limewire and Napster are 'filesharing' sites that allow the user to share files via the inet however even though music files are being shared on these sites why isn't anything been done about these sites? Again this can relate to Turkles idea of the inet and how it allows the user freedom. What do you think about sites such as Limewire and Napstar?

In addition, if even artists are now uploading their songs onto the inet do you think there will be a market for fans to purchase CD's anymore? I believe that sooner or later artists music will be free to download on sites such as Itunes and Myspace - what do you think?

4 comments:

  1. do you think the idea of illegal downloads is criticising Turkle's idea of freedom? In Lister Turkle only really talks about the positive aspects of freedom, like giving you confidence. This freedom therefore is going to have a negative effect if people abuse it (like illegal downloads). Do you think they have brushed past the criticism of the net? People aren't always going to use it for positive reasons!

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  2. i think illegal downloads of music are negative to the artist and teir companies. however it enables the users to to obtain the music they want for free. I think that because it is happening all of the time they will become free. I dnt think it is critiscing however it is just maybe taking this 'freedom' for granted.

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  3. in response to your question about there still being a market for CD's, i think there will always be a market, as people will always want the hard copy or their favourite artist, its a 'fan' thing to do. However i think the market will become very small as i now many people already that have stopped buying the CD's and i know its the credit crunch etc at the moment but music CD stores such as Zavvi have already closed down. Do you think sites like Limewire will ever get closed down? Or do you think more will become available?

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  4. i think way more will become available. when doing a little research on sites such as limewire and napster they claim that the sites themselves are not illegal because they are just a filesharing site however what the users share are up to them. who knows?

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