ding dong songs

just as i was walking past HMV the other day, i realized that it has been a long time since i have visited a CD shop and lately not many of these shops are sustaining. take for example the CD shop at Marina Sq, it has shifted from its premises.

In the past, it was a norm for one to visit the music store when they want to browse, buy or check out new arrivals. Now all these have changed with the internet. With just a few clicks on the mouse in the very comfort of your own home, you can browse music on the internet. This technology has also led to a massive number of people conveniently downloading music - illegally.

Embarrassed to say, I was tempted by this cheap and easy way of obtaining my favourite music without forking out a single cent. This all started in secondary school when my dad installed a CD rewriteable machine in his computer and copied a CD. I got excited with this new technology and borrowed a couple of CDs from my friends and made several copied CDs. The audio quality was exactly the same. During my poly days, it was probably due to peer influence, I started to learn how to download music illegally from several mp3 websites. I knew it was wrong but these methods of obtaining music were so easy and since no one I knew got caught then why not?

Nowadays obtaining illegal music is much easier than ever. Music from almost every artist can be found on you tube and can be easily shared just hours after it’s first release. Listeners can upload music onto their blogs and it’s available for download to anyone anywhere. File sharing has never been easier. Just Google the song title and artist and you can be brought to the downloading site. It is easier than purchasing it online. Music companies have tried putting anti copying softwares onto CDs, while government has spend tons of money on advertisements to educate the public to stop piracy but it is highly unlikely that we stop downloading illegally. It has been embedded into our daily lives. Whether we like it or not, we are all part of this illegal whirlpool of unauthorized downloading.