Digital Music

• Almost all music is distributed today in digital, rather than analog, form.
• Musical files compressed using MP3 occupy approximately 1/12 of the disk space occupied by uncompressed files, enabling them to be transmitted faster and stored more easily. Two groups have embraced MP3 technology especially enthusiastically. First, musicians unable to obtain recording contracts with the major record companies have found that, at modest cost, they can record their material in MP3 format and then make it available over the Internet. Second, high-school and college students have discovered that they can obtain on the Internet MP3 copies of most of the songs of their favorite musicians. A high percentage of the MP3 recordings available in this manner were prepared without the permission of the owners of the copyrights in the music.
• However, it undermines the ability of music creators to earn money. Two circumstances give rise to this problem. First, MP3 files are unsecured. Second, unlike the copies of musical works made using analog technology (such as ordinary casette tape recorders), the copies made using digital technology are perfect. In other words, each copy is identical to the original. The result: unauthorized, perfect MP3 copies of copyrighted recordings are widely available on the Internet for free.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/tfisher/Music.html