Safety Precautions Drive Up Costs

• Recording companies are forced, by their desire to protect their property from piracy, to spend money protecting their product. These costs include copy protection technology, data encryption and restricted use technology, all which work to restrict digital copying and downloading. Unfortunately, these advances have cost recording labels money to develop and implement them into their music. The increase in costs to protect their music has resulted in an increase in cost to customers who purchase the music. As piracy technology continues to evolve, customers can expect to see the price of music continue to rise in the future as record labels continue to advance their protection.
  
  

Artists Suffer

• Another disadvantage of music piracy is the negative impact on new musicians. Recording companies lose money on most of the artists they records, making them reliant on the few musicians who do earn money for their label. When the overall revenue from music decreases, recording companies are more hesitant to sign new talented artists and more reliant on the earnings from the most profitable ones. The result is a music industry that is more challenging for new artists to enter.
  
  

Access to Older Music

• Older music can be difficult to obtain. Some older music is not transferred to modern technology, such as a digital format. Also, artist's recording contracts prevent older songs from being re-released in situations where an artist recorded a song with one label and then transferred to another. The original recording company has the rights to the song and can choose not to release it. This prevents fans from gaining access to some older music from their favorite artists. Pirated music bypasses the restrictions on older music, allowing fans to hear some of their favorite old hits.
  
  

Increased Music Diversity

• Music piracy gives listeners the opportunity to listen to many different kinds of music. This includes music by artists who are less known, less popular music styles and older music that listeners may not otherwise choose to pay for. Less established artists benefit from this, having their music heard by audiences who otherwise may never hear it.