Is legal media downloading the way of the future?

Progress Introduction.txt 1% [][][] Downloading…..please wait A message we’re all used to seeing, whether it’s on our computers, games consoles or even on our phones. Media is pretty much my life; video games, films, music, books, technology, and computers. I use computers and technology all the time and keep track of the latest technology and media. So you may be thinking that I get all the latest technology and love the new ideas, such as touch screens or downloading media. But you’d be wrong. It’s always great to see what they can do with technology and it’s great to have different options ... more

This review will focus on music downloading since that is my experience though I am sure other media formats such as movies will have the same issues. Music downloading is becoming big business. From the early days of Napster which helped popularise the downloading age, more and more music is being downloaded. There are of course two types of downloading. Illegal and legal. Many people confuse the two since some downloading sites state that they are doing nothing wrong, they simply point you to a site or another users computer. Note they never state that *you* are not doing anything illegal ... more

I embraced digital music rather early, finding the MP3 format rather versatile and a great way of backing up my music collection, which at the time comprised of a large number of CD albums and singles. CD singles in particular take up a lot of space so many of them were digitalised and sold on eBay. Back then iTunes didn’t exist and I used a program called Music Match for all my digital music. Then, in 1999, Napster debuted on the internet and let’s be honest here – the music industry was changed forever. I was an early devotee of Napster and it was a brilliant tool for me to track down hard ... more

90% of all music downloaded online is stolen, simple as, the internet killing the music industry stone dead. The 10% that is purchased is mostly the popular songs, the day of the album track as equally scarce as music sales collapse. Or so it looks. The music industry is claiming that because everyone can choose to buy online they have bigger sales reach and so can afford to off set the huge theft. If an albums total sale was one million copies worldwide in 1990 and one million in 2011, regardless of how many copies are stolen in 2011, its still sells the same sales, right? That is the logic ... more

INTRO Now I am a big music, film and game lover. I love nothing more than going on my iPod and listening to the latest songs and watching the latest films. I mean, who doesn't? Downloading is definitley becoming more and more popular and it wouldn't surprise me if CD's and DVD's are scrapped and people just download online. I mean , what would you rather do - drive/walk to a shop, search for your favorite cd/dvd, buy it, get home find somewhere to store the thing, and then be constantly getting it out and putting it back in the case? OR , going online, choose from thousands of websites to ... more