The Real Reason Why Fans File-Share Music

I believe that there are many different reasons why fans file-share music. Also, I think that the longer music downloading occurs, the more we’re not talking about greedy fans, entitlement, and anti-corporate rebellion anymore. This is a decade in the making. It will go on another one after that. However, if the evolution of the online ecosystem is allowed to reach its potential, I think there's a way to make a service that's better than piracy.

It’s hard to imagine what that will look like now. But the record industry has some catching up to do. How fans want to consume music is getting further divorced from the ways in which they would like them to consume music. Time will only tell how this plays out. Please take a moment to read my latest essay on the subject of why fans file-share music and where the phenomenon is heading.

Breaking the Internet won’t fix the record industry. Instead, we must build a digital ecology of music culture that pays artists for their art and supports creativity… Just as we strive to defend artists and the innovation and creativity that their music is, we must defend what the Internet is: an architecture to enable unplanned and unforeseen innovation. Doing otherwise would be a grave mistake. (Read on.)