A
music download
refers to the transferring of a music
file
from an Internet-facing
computer or website to a user's local computer.
This term encompasses
both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without
permission or payment if required.
Legal music
downloads typically involved the a purchase of a song or
album available for downloading on the Internet.
Even legal music downloads
have faced a number of challenges from artists, record labels and the
Recording Industry Association of America. In July 2007, the Universal
Music Group decided not to renew their long term contracts with iTunes.
This legal challenge was primarily based upon the issue of pricing of
songs, as Universal wanted to be able to charge more or less depending
on the artist, a shift away from iTunes' standard 99 cents per song
pricing.
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Many industry leaders feel
that this is only the first of many show-downs between Steve Jobs and
the various record labels.
Some artists allow their songs to be downloaded from their websites,
often as a short preview or a low quality sampling. Others have
embedded services in their sites that allow purchases of their singles
or albums, as demonstrated by Metallica's official website. Other
music artists, most notably Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor, have
offered their music to listeners for free, some times in defiance of
their record labels.
 In 2005, Nine Inch Nails released
their full length album, With Teeth, on their MySpace page, prior to
its official in store release date. Most recently the band has leaked
various tracks off of its latest album, Year Zero, by hiding USB
drives in concert venues. In past years, acts such as these have been
commonplace from artists who seek to get their music out to a wider
market, usually by tapping the power of the internet.
In addition to this and to music
stores, peer-to-peer downloading programs or websites such as
Limewire,
Kazaa, Bearshare and many others are very popular.
Additionally, Torrent filesharing is another common method of
peer-to-peer transfers. There is much controversy relating to
filesharing due to copyright restrictions that apply to recorded
media.
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