EN
The contemporary music industry is in a period of remarkable change. Thanks to the powerful internet and digital media technologies, the global audience has gained the access to the fast-expanding music catalogue, while the artists have discovered new ways to make their music available worldwide. There is an intense debate over the issue of internet piracy and the level of protection for intellectual property. Music piracy – the unlawful distribution of copyrighted digital music files that can be easily shared over the Internet – is widely considered a detriment to the music business and the main cause of declining album sales. As such, it remains a key challenge for the major record labels. But is piracy inevitably a lose-lose situation? This paper analyzes a number of alternative academic views on the file sharing issue and the ambiguous role of music downloading on the current downturn in CD sales. The findings show that rather than tackling piracy, it is now crucial for the music industry to implement new business and communication models, which will eventually exploit the emerging digital technologies, improve their public image and deliver high quality content which appeals to listeners more than piracy does.