Business Merits of Free Music

The subject of music file sharing is one that has reverberated throughout the music industry for over two decades. Ever since software developers engineered a way for people to share music over the internet, music artists and record executives expressed their displeasure. In Emily White's 2012 article "I Never Owned Any Music, to Begin With," the then young twenty-one-year-old woman bravely admits to partaking in the activity of file sharing. She is a child of the digital age and openly explains that she and her friends will not buy albums; they prefer to pay for convenience. A streaming service like Spotify is better suited to their lifestyle than buying music. Though she may have taken part in file-sharing activities and has this extensive catalog of music in her possession, she feels that the music is not hers. If she loses the music, she can find another way to obtain it. This non-ownership model is the future of music consumption.

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