Piracy: Helpful for New/Small Artists?

In the course of my research, I have come across an interesting viewpoint in regard to the effects of music piracy on artists with relatively small followings. An article titled "Sharing and Owning of Musical Works" offers the insight that music-industry "superstars" are perhaps the only artists affected negatively by music piracy, or more specifically by illegal peer-to-peer sharing, which is what the article addresses. Aspiring artists, it suggests, benefit from this type of sharing because it can lead to greater circulation of their music and expose them to new audiences.

I have come across this concept outside of my research as well, although is anything really outside research of the music industry when you're a music fan? An electronic duo I listen to on occasion called Blood on the Dance Floor, pictured below, released a single in December 2011 called "Revenge Porn." When it came out, the duo posted the following message to their Facebook fan page:

Revenge porn is now on iTunes! Support the resistance and go get it and if you have no money go pirate it. Either way I still got mad love for you. ♥ Thank you everyone.

This supports the aforementioned article's idea that less popular artists might actually benefit from the increased exposure pirating music could offer them. Of course, it is clear from further posts in which they express desire for the song to make its way up the iTunes charts that they would prefer people pay for the song. However, the above post suggests there may be some truth to the suggestion put forth in the article.

Blood on the Dance Floor, album art for "Revenge Porn"

Digiwaves - Why?

Hello reader; welcome to Digiwaves! I am a student at the University of Michigan, where I study Communication Studies. As part of the class I am in titled "Managing the Information Environment," I am expected to complete a group research project at the end of the semester. This blog is dedicated to that project and its research.

My group has chosen to research the changing music industry and what it means for copyright holders, artists, and record labels. More specifically, our research focuses on music piracy and its implications on the music industry and copyright law.

We believe it is important to study this topic because music plays such a huge role in our culture today, both in the U.S. and throughout the world--it entertains, it brings people together, and it is found almost everywhere--and the survival of the industry in whatever form proves effective means that we will get to enjoy new music for many years to come. As such, we hope our research will lead us to potential solutions to the various issues plaguing the industry today.