McNair Scholars Research Journal
Abstract
For decades, consumers, due to frequent technological advances, have utilized a variety of music-listening processes that have each become obsolete as more easily accessible technologies emerged. This change in music consumption methods is often detrimental to parties in the recording industry. The digitalization of the recording industry has allowed consumers to obtain music through means other than physical purchase, leading to well-documented financial insecurity for artists (Eiriz & Leite, 2017). In 2018, the Music Industry Research Association (MIRA) conducted a survey of 1,227 musicians and found that 61% of the group agreed that their music-related income is not enough to cover their living expenses (MIRA, 2018). For this reason, frequent attempts to deter widespread copyright infringement have been made. However, the aggressive litigation strategy of the recording industry and the development of streaming services as a viable music consumption method have instead decreased sales and negatively impacted artists’ revenue from the recording industry (Fedock, 2005; Marshall, 2015).