FACT: writing, recording and releasing is a business, one that requires constant investment in order to bring new artists to the public and develop artist careers over the long term. Without this investment, many budding artists are unlikely to ever get heard.

The fact is, illegal file-sharing is cutting into legitimate sales - the principal means by which the majority of artists and songwriters make a living from music. The impact has been immense. Live touring has always been a source of income, but it cannot fund an entire career nor can it sustain many non-performance based genres. The expenses of going on the road mean that profits, while healthy in some cases, are in the majority of cases offset by the costs. Even when a new artist is discovered over the internet, and has stood out from the crowd, unless enough people buy the track, either via a legitimate site or in a physical format, they won't be able to make a living.

A few artists of course do become big stars and with it they gain high financial rewards. But for the industry that has invested in them, the profits are ploughed back into funding new artists.

If consumers want a wide choice and variety of music, if they want their favourite artists to succeed or to continue to discover new talent, the best way is to buy their music and go to and see them perform.

The ten most commonly repeated myths about the recording industry and music online.

"These artists are immensely rich anyway, downloading a few tracks for free is not going to hurt them."

The overwhelming majority of artists are NOT rich. The biggest losers are the upcoming artists because not paying for music means much less money to invest in them.

" 'Free music' sounds great. What's the problem?"

The problem is that the artists, and the hundreds of others who helped create the recording will not get paid for their efforts. The music is generally taken without permission, and often before its ready to be released in the way the artists determine.

"Piracy on the Internet may be a problem, but nothing can be done to stop it."

The recording industry has already taken action against thousands of sites around the world and a large number of individuals that illegally distributed files on P2P networks. The vast majority of sites take down illegal material when asked to do so. Where they don't there is the final option of legal action. Educational programmes, support for legal websites, and a call to ISPs to install technological 'blocks' are also part of the industry's response to the problem.

"Uploading music without the consent of the creator may be illegal, but isn't the music industry exaggerating the effect on the music sector?"

There is overwhelming evidence that unauthorised copying and distribution means less music is sold.
Economist Stan Liebowitz, for example, conducted extensive studies that show a "close linkage between changes in file-sharing and changes in record sales", bringing "significant harm to the music industry"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/jle/journal

"The real problem is that the music industry wants to stop the advance of technology."

The music industry wants the advances technology brings, but does not want that technology abused at the expense of a whole industry. From the Edison cylinder, through vinyl, tape and the CD, to the MP3 file, the music industry has embraced new forms and new ideas and is doing so more than ever before and faster than other 'content' industries.

"There are no legitimate services out there for me to use, so I'm forced to fall back on the illegitimate ones."

There are already many legitimate services offering over six million tracks - and more are appearing all the time. Go here for a list of legitimate stores.
The price of a CD or a track has fallen or remained static in most countries, but piracy has got worse. When you pay for a CD or MP3, you're paying for the costs involved in developing, making, marketing and distributing music. The people who pay these costs cannot compete with music given away for 'free'.

"I've heard artists claim that making their music available to download for free is the best way to get themselves heard, in that way promoting their music and boosting their sales."

Many artists do in fact choose to make their music available for promotion. Generally this will be accompanied by a marketing push for a future single or album and will be a means of raising a profile for future sales. But, importantly, this is the artists' and other rights holders' choice and has been done for a good reason. It is not up to someone else to decide what gets distributed for free.

"None of the money from online sales goes to the artist anyway."

Record companies pay artists royalties on sales of downloads in the same way as for sales of CDs.

"File sharing and burning is just like home taping, and that never killed the music sector."

File sharing on the internet is nothing like copying tapes at home. That's like comparing someone physically copying a letter to a printing house churning out hundreds of copies a minute of the same letter - and then making it available to an unlimited number of people around the world for free.

"It's the record companies' fault for not getting their artists' tracks online quickly enough."

While it is very easy for anyone to upload an MP3 music file onto the net and give it away for nothing, what takes time is to do so in such a way that the online product is tracked through the process, with the artists, publishers, record companies, third party retailers all being paid their share.