When Napster first appeared on the world-wide web in June of 1999 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster), the music industry trembled in fear. If people were allowed free and limitless access to perfect digital copies of any song they liked, how would the struggling artists, producers, and distributors who create hit albums be able to survive? Let's find out.
Over the last 12 years, pirating technology has exponentially improved and its usage has become a common fact of American culture. It would be interesting to learn if, in the wake of pirate-culture, there are any record companies left and if so, how they are faring?
Lady Gaga alone sold an estimated 50 million albums and 51 million singles between 2008 and 2011 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Gaga) for her label Interscope Records. Each copy of The Fame Monster goes for $10.45 at Wal-Mart (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=lady+gaga++albums&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=5WE&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivnso&biw=1366&bih=638&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=4780195101952206667&sa=X&ei=uuSXTZW8DO-K0QHdzIz5Cw&ved=0CEwQ8wIwAQ#), assuming her other two CD's are similarly priced, that's approximately $522,500,000 in gross album sales, without including her 51 million singles). So much for the starving record companies, but what about the starving artists?
Without figuring in royalties, endorsements, or sign-on bonuses, Lady Gaga grossed an estimated $133,000,000 for 2010 in concert ticket sales alone (http://www.silive.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2010/12/2010_concert_tour_revenue_tick.html).
All of this means one of two things: either people in the music business live in an alternate universe where Earth-currency is so devalued it's exchange rate with the local tender is 1,000,000 to 1, or the recording industry is doing really well.
Why all the fuss then? The RIAA is still dumping millions into lawsuits against illegal downloaders and downloading sites, it seems an awful waste if piracy doesn't really affect profits--unless you consider power.
Many people have never considered the implications of the power record companies have enjoyed since shortly after Thomas Jefferson invented the phonograph, but if you've ever listened to a record, the radio, an 8 track, Music television, a cassette, a CD, or the radio--you've listened to something the recording industry has wanted you to hear.
Record companies don't simply sell albums, they control music itself--as completely and ruthlessly as De Beers controls diamonds. No studio conglomerate can tell you what to like, but make no mistake that it can decide what you hear. The greatest band in the world may be playing two shows a night every Friday in Gallup, NM, but if you don't live there, you'll never know about it unless a record company wants you to--or unless you have access to a P2P file-sharing network.
In its relentless assault upon bit torrent networks and free media hosts such as Youtube, the recording industry isn't trying to lock down a measly few million in pirated property, it's trying to retain a monopoly on its product--and it knows it's running out of time. Soon it will occur to people that they can produce/distribute their own music and decide what to like on their own--not as a hobby or an illegal act of piracy, but as the most sensible way to interface with a limitless world of musical expression. And when that happens, the industry is dead.
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