Musicians on the verge of a nervous breakdown

For most people, internet means "freedom" or "ability to speak with the people they care about anywhere in the world". But for the music industry, internet is rather a synonym of "economic downturn".

As a matter of fact, over the last ten years, musicians have witnessed a incredibly fast fall of their sales. And, as less and less albums were sold in the music stores, just as much music was - and still is - downloaded for free from the internet. If some governments are currently thinking about the different possible ways to prevent those illegal downloads, most people keep filling up their hard drive with albums of their favorite - and less favorite - bands.

If I'm saying "and less favorite", it's because these changes in the habits of those new "consumers" have also changed their listening habits. In fact, many illegal downloaders say that a lot of the music they download is so poor that they just wouldn't buy it if it were the only way they could listen to it. Some also say that when they really like an album, they still go to a store or on a legal online platform to buy it to support the artists that are actually worth it.

So who is to believe? Is the music industry right when it says that it is only the victim of a worlwide theft, or is today's music so bad that it explains alone the reason why people prefer getting most of it for free?

The artists themselves seem divided about this difficult issue. If the mainstream musicians are generally in favor of a strict legal ban of illegal downloading, some are more balanced in their analysis. For instance, some new artists became famous precisely thanks to the internet and the ability it gave them to broadcast their songs.The other main issue lies in the technical advance the hackers always have on the law.

And what about my opinion, do you ask? Well, I don't know, I'm just too into this new album I've just downloaded to answer right now...