Is music piracy helping or harming the world Summary

Is music piracy helping or harming the world?
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Notably, technology has taken over the world and colonized many sectors, including the music industry. With many streaming services available on the internet, getting access to music content illegally is way easier with a few clicks. Piracy and illegal streaming have created a rift between producers and consumers, especially music artists who feel robbed of their creations. Likewise, consumers can access music innovatively and cheaply without explicit permission from artists. And many people do not have a problem with breaking copyright laws since they consider it a lesser evil. Undoubtedly, music piracy creates harm by undermining and stealing from artists. In turn, it creates a negative effect on the economy because it reduces sales in the music industry.
According to the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), the real cost of sound recording piracy goes beyond its impact on America’s sound recording producers and distributors. With piracy, harm is spread across intellectual property owners, taxpayers, and consumers. IPI reports that due to the United States and global piracy, its economy loses nearly $12.5 billion annually in total output. These outputs comprise of revenues and any other related parameter of economic performance. Also, the United States’ economy loses about 71,000 jobs due to piracy of which 26,860 jobs would be included in the sound recording industry while an additional 44,000 jobs spread to other sectors. Again, U.S workers lose nearly $2.7 billion annually in earnings out of which $1.1 billion would be earned by workers and the remaining earned by others in similar industries. Additionally, IPI has it that the federal, state, and local governments miss out on at least $422 million in taxes. In essence, there will be more money flowing in the global economy if music piracy is stopped. This information highlights the whole aspect of economic damage created by music piracy.[RIAA. “The true cost of sound recording piracy to the U.S. economy| IPI.” Riaa.com /reports/the-true-cost-of-sound-recording-piracy-to-the-u-s-economy/. (Accessed April 12 2021)]
A glimpse into some damaging piracy statistics, online piracy exceeds the download of files. For instance, pirated videos, be they music videos or movies get more than 230 billion views annually. Music piracy has the common feature of price as the reason for downloading pirated content worldwide. Many consumers believe that price discourages them from purchasing music. Similarly, more than one-third of music consumers still pirate the content. Research conducted by IFPI in 2018 found that consumers engaged and had access to music in both licensed and unlicensed channels. In 2019 alone, about 27% of music consumers had access to unlicensed music. Simply put, pirating content is normalized in the digital age and significantly lowers economic output.[Statista, “Most popular reasons for downloading music illegally worldwide in 2017,” Statista.com. /statistics/943206/music-piracy-reasons/ (accessed April 12, 2021).]
First, pirating content in its very nature remains illegal. Often, many consumers are quick to ignore this fact whenever they dow...