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If there's one subject that has rocked the computer world over the past five years, it's MP3 downloading.
People have been swapping music over the internet since the early 1990s but it wasn't until Napster came along that song-swapping really took off.
Soon, there were all manner of sites and services offering free, and illegal, music downloads and exchanges. Like kids in a sweet shop, people gobbled up the freebies without any thought of the consequences.
Now, billions of audio files are up for grabs, putting the fear of God into the major record labels. So what is the current state of digital downloads, how is the face of music distribution changing and how will it affect you?
Online pirates
If one person downloads an album, no one loses much money. When millions of people decide to save themselves a walk to the record shop by switching on the computer, everyone from the artist to the company that presses the CDs stops making money. If existing artists stop making money, record companies are less likely to invest in new ones.
Brian McLaughlin, chief operating officer at the HMV Group, says: "The fall in CD sales is a major worry for all music retailers and, therefore, we need to reduce online piracy and double our efforts to work as closely as possible with the labels to help break the new talent for the future."
The Canadian artist website KeepMusicComing.com, is keen to reinforce this, stating: "You need music. And music needs you. Buying music makes more music."
Music superstars have also been vocal in the fight against online piracy. Napster's illegal activities were curtailed by a court action originally instigated by heavy metal band Metallica.
Ex-Spice Girl Mel C also believes: "If you download music without permission, it's not only the artist that suffers, it's everybody that's gone into making a CD - producers, mixers, musicians and many more people.
"Ultimately, you're also depriving new acts of being developed and having money to support them. Basically, if you copy music you're only robbing yourself."
What's the problem?
People who download music, however, have different opinions. One downloader says: "I can appreciate the concern from the music industry but it's actually given artists and manufacturers a much-needed wake up call in terms of producing quality products and giving value for money.
"To some extent the explosion of MP3s was a knee-jerk reaction to continually rising CD prices, making customers less inclined to own them."
Another supporter of free music downloads is US singer-songwriter Janis Ian, who claims to have had her merchandise sales tripled since offering free music on her website.
Although downloading the odd file here and there isn't enough to warrant a prison sentence, the powers that be are cracking down on serial digital pirates.
In 1999, a 22-year-old student at the University of Oregon received a two-year probationary sentence for posting approximately $70,000 (£43,500) worth of pirated music on his university website.
As yet, no one in the UK has been prosecuted for MP3 distribution. However, the black market CD industry is a growing concern, as many pirate CDs are generated by downloading illegal audio from the internet.
The main pressure is coming from those who are losing money and those trying to protect artists - the record labels and music organisations, such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Threats of prison and extortionate fines may sound scary, but the reality remains that millions still download.
Money matters
While the act of sharing copyrighted music is illegal, the internet remains a revolutionary distribution platform, where music can be delivered within minutes, rather than weeks, to anyone in the world.
So, if it's such a good system, why are we still traipsing to the high street when we could be legitimately sitting at home downloading the Top 10?
Alistair Wells, in-house label manager for Prime Distribution, one of the UK's biggest record distributors, suggests: "Most labels still rely on the physical product as their main revenue source. A few years ago, a lot of labels got burned by companies offering to manage their digital distribution.
"Because of this they are still wary, even though the technology and security for payment has improved. However, it's getting to a point where if you don't join the MP3 train, you're going to be left behind."
Two years ago, Sony Music Entertainment and the Universal Music Group joined forces to create the on-demand music subscription service Pressplay. Today, it contains over 300,000 songs (mainly artists from the Sony and Universal stables), where 20 tracks can be downloaded for $20 (£13) a month.
The high-street music retailer HMV has also made inroads. Its Digital Download service works on a system of credits. Pay a £5 monthly subscription and you'll get 500 music credits, which can be used to stream up to 500 tracks, download 50 tracks in copy-protected WMA format or record five tracks to CD. Alternatively, single tracks can be downloaded for 99p each.
One of the biggest developments in legal music downloads is Apple's iTunes service. As of June this year, it had five million users in the US and its new Music Store concept allows users to preview and download any song on its 200,000-strong database for 99c (62p).
Pascal Cagni, a vice president at Apple, says: "Digital technology is opening up tremendous opportunities for consumers to enjoy music online and on the go, in a way that protects the rights, the businesses and the livelihoods of the music creators."
Although it has the backing of the major record labels, the iTunes Music Store is currently only available to Mac users in the US. What's more, once your tune is bought, there are limitations to what you can actually do with it. Encoding within the iTunes software only allows each tune to be played on a maximum of three computers in a move to reduce the distribution chain.
Last April saw a campaign by a range of music download services attempting to crack internet piracy. Digital Download Day was the biggest giveaway of legal digital music, allowing computer users to download 30 tracks, stream 300 tracks or burn three tracks to blank CDs.
It offered a choice of 170,000 songs by artists such as Eminem, David Gray, Christina Aguilera, Coldplay and The Streets.
Madonna's American Life and Fleetwood Mac's Peacekeeper were recently the first singles from a major label to be sold as a digital download. The sales are being tracked by Nielsen SoundScan, which is attempting to measure the impact of downloaded music on overall music sales.
Many major record labels have also joined forces with BT to launch Dotmusic on Demand, another subscription-based digital download service; while several ISPs, such as Freeserve and Tiscali, now have dedicated areas for downloading legal digital music.
Record companies are also finding other ways to reduce the distribution of unlicensed digital music files: copy-protected CDs are now making their way into shops. A prime example is Massive Attack's latest album, 100th Window, which cannot be played on computers, making it difficult to copy tracks.
What's in store?
While the record companies figure out how to contain the growing number of illicit digital downloads, one certainty remains: the internet isn't going away.
Once one illegal site is shut down, another appears, absorbing the millions of users with their growing number of music files, all ready to be shared once more. And with internet connections getting faster, more files can be downloaded in a shorter amount of time, increasing the amount of illegal files shared.
However, as this was being written, the RIAA had started issuing requests for information on individuals who are suspected of music piracy. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, ISPs must comply by revealing the identities of file-swappers where copyright infringements are suspected.
An RIAA representative said: "This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone." But internet research company Jupiter has found that Europe's music fans are unlikely to pay for online music subscription services any time soon, because of the rights on paid-for digital music and uncomprehensive services.
Another step forward will be the increase of MP3-enabled mobile phones. Thomson, which owns the MP3 standard, has recently licensed its music technology to both Nokia and Sony Ericsson, allowing them to expand on the estimated 100 million devices which can already play MP3 files today.
Perhaps the biggest news to emerge is the re-launch of Napster. It seems strange to think that the illegal service that initiated mainstream downloading is to be re-introduced by Roxio, who has also recently acquired Pressplay.
No date has been set for the re-launch, but with Roxio controlling a legal digital music distribution infrastructure and catalogue rights with all five major music labels, we could see a permissible way forward for legal music downloads.
Legal music download sites:
music.tiscali.co.uk/freemusicclub
See also:
The music industry has finally worked out how to make money out of internet music downloads. But will legal online music services be as popular as P2P sites? 18 Jun 2004
The US trade body is now bringing the full weight of the law to bear on individuals who dare to download a track or two from the web. But the users are fighting back ... 01 Aug 2003All Online
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