Group Project Blog

The first article I read was "Copyright Protection, Technological Change, and the Quality of New Products: Evidence from Recorded Music since Napster" by Joel Waldfogel. This article examines the change in the quality of music since the creation of Napster. However, after much research, it has been discovered that no change in music quality has taken place because of Napster. Therefore, the focus on copyright protection seems almost unnecessary because consumers should be worried instead. Another source, "Piracy on the High C's: Music Downloading, Sales Displacement, and Social Welfare in a Sample of College Students" by Joel Waldfogel and Rob Rafel, explains the research that has been done to determine if the drop in record sales can be attributed to file sharing. The data shared in this article measures the effects of downloading on economics in the music industry. The next source I read was John Alderman's "Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3, And the New Pioneers of Music." This book is about how the Internet has changed the music industry, for when songs used to be controlled, they can now be free elements. The challenges that come with the power of the Internet are examined and explained throughout the book. The last source I used for my research was an article called " Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie? The Supply of New Recorded Music Since Napster" by Joel Waldfogel. This article researchers the quantity of new recorded music and new artists to see if these things have changed since the start of Napster. However, it has been found that although there is a decreased demand in music, there are still stable quantities, and the world is independent labels is only growing.

This image shows how prevalence of music piracy in today's society. It also demonstrates that different demographics obtain their music differently, and since the younger group is downloading illegally, this seems like a trend that will continue to grow.

 "Singing a different tune" is an article found in The Economist that explains music piracy and how it has changed within the past decade. The article claims that music business is working hard to fight the battle against illegal downloading and succeeding now more than ever before.