Jonina Tong
Argumentive Essay
Unit Three, Lesson Eight

Music Piracy is Theft

Throughout history, music spread through common experiences among people of different cultures. In today’s technologically advanced society, people spread music online, sometimes without an artist’s permission. This can lead to many problems, and music companies are now cracking down on this practice. Sharing music online without permission is essentially theft. Sharing music online prevents recording companies to make money from their efforts. They say that online sharing has resulted in a “dramatic drop in profits and sales” over the past 10 years (Flaherty). People who find music for free online are not paying for CD’s or every MP3 download. To truly understand the impact of music piracy on the creator, one must understand how many people are involved the recording process. For the sales of each album, profits must be shared between all parties: musicians, sound engineers, music producers, record labels, managers, advertisers, and the company selling the product. Thus, one renegade digital pirate can negatively affect “the profit-margins of a diverse array of contributors” (Stansen, 47). Many people believe sharing music only affects the recording artist, but the reality is that sharing hurts business for all companies involved. Therefore, the sharing of music files is just as damaging as stealing a CD from Target. There are many people who don’t see the harm in sharing music files online and even think they have the right to do it. One online blogger states that he originally paid for an entire CD and that “should be able to do with the material whatever [he] wants” (“My Music, My