Outline
With the growth of the internet, people start to buy products online instead of just buying them in shops. Products that are being sold most online are books and audio CD's according to research by Multiscope. The main reason is because of the shipping size. Although most of these products bought online are still physical products, record companies and retailers started to offer digital downloads of music.

Most of the music that is being downloaded up till now is illegal, meaning nobody has paid copyrights in order to listen to the music. For record companies as well for artists and eventually the consumers, this is a serious problem. Without money coming to the record company, there is no money for developing new artists. Established artists are not motivated to make new records because of the lack of payment and eventually there will hardly be any new music. This is not the situation we want to end up with.

Besides making the consumer aware of this, the record companies also have to offer good alternatives in order not to tempt people to illegal activities but to move to a healthy situation again. How is it possible to let people buy the official music, rather than let them copying music illegitimately and distributing it? The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of what is going on in the record industry and give recommendations that can contribute to, part of, a solution that results in a healthier situation were people buy music online instead of copying it illegally.

Download Digital Music Distribution v1.21 04-04-2001 (4.293 kb) by Wouter Haring