Mp3- Rise And Decline “The Mp3 Crackdown” Essay, Research Paper

During the last seven years, there has been a market boom with the use of the Internet and e-commerce to manage business tycoon companies to the everyday mom and pop stores. Also, there has been a steady increase in the annual sales reported by big record labels and independent recording companies during the Internet explosion. Since technology was created to benefit mankind in facilitating our lives, computerized audio extraction programs (known as burning appz’s) have been developed in order to literally “burn” your personal music CD’s into remotely small files in your computer. Once the music has been burned, its file extension usually becomes the infamous .mp3 file.

An mp3 is nothing more than a efficiently compressed audio format that scares the wits out of any Colossal record company. Due to the fact that music pirating is now at an all time high because of the reliance society has with music as a mean of relaxation and identification of one’s self. The problem is that inflation has risen to unimagined proportions in the last 20 years, now music companies have taken advantage of the surge in sales and they raise the ante in hope of exploiting there latest talents music. So basically what they do is create a price margin for each production to gain about 500% of there total investment. For us, that means $17 dollars for each single CD and about $26 dollars for any double CD. Over time, mankind has learned to adapt and manipulate its environment to create a more convenient society around him, and so, some fought back.

Audio pirating exits ever since man started creating music. Ever since the computerized revolution, which started in the early 80’s, audio pirating reached a new pinnacle in it’s underground beginning and entered main stream life. Now, audio pirates, as they are known, have decided to fight back against monstrous music recording companies and have used new technology to basically turn home use applications into a weapon that end’s up costing trillion dollar companies like Sony an estimated $250 billion dollars a year. This technology is the incredible CD-R, short for Compact Disk Recorder, whose better known as a “burner” and burning appz’s. With this remarkable technology, anyone who posses one can copy any of the billion different kinds of CD’s out there.

The obvious problem with this new technology is that it violates the authors right and it deprives music corporations of unnecessary money that they already have. So these companies, after 5 years of the existence of Mp3, have taken the small monetary problem up with congress that resulted in an almost unanimous vote that gave record companies the power to take legal action against any audio pirate. This includes $25,000 dollar fines, 5 years in prison and the imminent destruction of pirated material being physical like a CD or concept like an Mp3 file in your computer.

See the real problem with the Mp3 crackdown isn’t the fact that you can’t legally own the CD’s, it’s the fact that when this technology was introduced, a few people started posting pirated mp3 recordings so other people wouldn’t have to go buy the music, brilliant. Now you where just a click away from obtaining the song you just saw on TV or that one song your friend suggested you hear. Since this happened so quickly, millions of people have made thousands of dollars of absolutely no work of there own. But since record companies noticed a steady increase in it’s popularity and availability, they took the problem to court and won.

What was before freely distributed is now nothing more than a conglomeration of capitalist fame seeking industries that sell licenses for downloading the song so you can legally own it. This new approach on selling music tracks for a dollar a song cuts down the expenses required to market the album, it’s sales increase and more money is made off of an idea that sought to liberate music listeners everywhere from the exploits and high prices of music Cd’s.

Now, the whole purpose of the Mp3 is dead. Web sites which I use to rely on for downloading free music, now endorse monetary ideas caused by record companies whose C.E.O. was furious because he could only buy 5 new Ferraris for Christmas. Although the Mp3 is now more clandestine than it’s beginning, it’s still available for anyone who would wait 6 to 10 hours of downloading time for a free CD.

Soon, Mp3’s will be long and gone. It’s only popular use now is for independent companies or future prospects that want to distribute their material in search of fame and glory. Hopefully in the future, star performers won’t sign big record contracts that demystify the appearance and magic the performer or band gives the audience. Instead, these now have hopes of using the Internet for a shot at stardom. This is the only way people will be able to defeat the tyranny of recording and bring the music back to where it belongs, not to the studio but straight to the people.