As much as the RIAA would like to hear otherwise, most students don’t see anything wrong with downloading files online:
Two-thirds of U.S. college students see nothing unethical about downloading digital copyrighted files without paying, a survey found. In addition, 52 percent think downloading music without paying is acceptable behavior in the workplace, according to the survey released by Business Software Alliance.
I’ll tell you of one positive impact of downloading music and such: the death of the one-hit-wonder. Everyone’s done it. You hear a song, you like it, you go buy the CD in the store for $20, and lo and behold the album is terrible.
Downloading erased that. You hear a song, you let it wear on you, and if you really like it (and a few others if they are an indie band rising to the top), then you buy the CD and maybe catch them in concert. That’s the way Gen X and Gen Y feel about music. Selling out is crime #1, and the sooner business latch on (RIAA and IP junkies included) the better the industry will be.
Ultimately, there is a possible solution that could limit illegal downloads. For example, most streaming platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music now offer subscription-based models that allow subscribers to stream unlimited songs and albums provided that they pay a monthly fee. Personally, I think that as time goes on we will see more businesses in the music industry adapting to this trend. Not just for streaming music either, the music industry has shown its ability to adapt regarding music making softwares being available to download. A family member of mine actually uses a site similar to FileProton to download the latest software for his studio and he claims his work has never ran smoother.
Of course, it is not just the music industry that is embracing the trend for subscription-based business models. One of my friends, for example, works at a software company, and he sells software using a recurring billing model. Accordingly, in case you were not already aware, Software as a Service, also known as SaaS, is a cloud-based service where instead of downloading software to your desktop PC or business network to run and update, you instead access an application via an internet browser. You can combine this with using an open-source container system such as kubernetes to help keep everything managed, including various software that is implemented.
The software application could be anything from office software to unified communications. As mentioned above, even music streaming software can be used in this way. If you would like to learn more about how subscription management businesses operate, you can find plenty of helpful resources on the FastSpring website.
Anyway, with all of this in mind, I am intrigued to see what else the future might hold for software and digital eCommerce. Do you have any software or music subscriptions on the go? If so, let me know your thoughts in the comments.