In terms of advantages, there are many to consider. It does lower distribution costs as producers and artists don't have to pay extra money for CD duplication and then for the advertisement and distribution in stores across the world. With simple operations such as this, even a single track could spread far and wide across the world in a matter of days, even hours. In the early days of file sharing, websites such as mp3.com were a haven for unsigned artists wanting to make a name for themselves. Even today, many unsigned and new upcoming bands make their songs available to download for free. The Arctic Monkeys made their first album completely free to download on the internet, and as such rose to fame and fortune by being number 1 in the download charts. Artists themselves make only 1% per album sold, but make their living from tours, ticket sales, royalties, advertising and merchandising.
The downside being that record companies are at risk from the 'evils' of free file sharing. Statistics show that 95% of music downloaded online is acquired illegally. To prevent the risk of their businesses being ran into the ground, they choose to stretching to extreme measures to stop those responsible. The vast majority of CD's come with a DRM code imprinted in the data that prevents the consumers from uploading the songs from the disc on to their computers and distributing them illegally. File sharing websites such as Kazaa and Napster have been successfully sued and converted to legal downloading sites, or in the much extreme cases such as the Pirate Bay, shutdown completely.
2. Free creativity - Youtube
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