We have all been at the crossroads where we have to decide, as to whether or not we should download a song from that random website on google that lets us download high-quality music for free! Now here the problem is that most of us already know that these websites are providing us with pirated songs but the word free is pretty irresistible, right? Why should we pay money for a song when we can simply download it via some third-party website? Even though right from the beginning these websites always look shady and either keep redirecting us to some weird websites or keep popping random ads every 5 seconds. But just because we are able to download music for free we ignore all of this shadiness and go ahead and download the song anyways. But what we don’t realise is that downloading songs and files from these unreliable websites and sources are causing bigger troubles than we are aware of. By downloading music from such illegal websites not only are we endangering our device and data but are also committing a crime. By using such websites we are directly encouraging them to grow in number and steal the rights of music owners and artists, additionally, we are allowing them to infest our devices and are giving them indirect permission to steal our data. Let’s have a look at the consequences of downloading music from unreliable sources and websites.
Consequences of downloading music from unreliable sources and websites
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It’s Illegal
It’s a given that such websites are not paying for the copyrights of any songs that they are offering you to download for free. So, reproducing, distributing, copying or even downloading a song with copyrights without having permission or the due licence to do so is considered music piracy. So yes, downloading any songs with copyrights without authorization to do so is considered illegal. Additionally, if a person or a company is distributing a song that has copyrights then they are also refraining the owner of the song from earning any profits out of it.
The piracy of music is a huge problem in India and has been growing significantly every year. The Indian Music Industry as a whole has the bear the loss of nearly 600 crores every year because of songs being pirated. Recently it has been discovered that there is a new form of music piracy called mobile chip piracy that alone is costing a loss of around 300 crores. To protect songs from getting pirated Indian Music Industry has come up with Music Mobile Exchange (MMX) licence.
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May consist viruses
These websites that are allowing you to download music for free, are mostly infesting your device. Statistics say that more than 50% of all pirated files are infected with malware that can even corrupt devices that are protected by the most advanced anti-virus programs. These corrupt files can further harm your device and also endanger your personal data. Not only that but these viruses can even get to sensitive things like your bank details and make the damage even greater. So in order to save a few bucks you’ll in return be endangering not only your device but also your data, is it even worth it?
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You’re ripping off the artists from their rightful money
This point is about ethics and empathy. Imagine a struggling artist that has been working day and night in order to create a song piece that would help them kickstart their music career so that they could achieve their dream and fulfil the dreams of their family! And when that artist finally created a song that is getting recognition gradually, the song gets pirated and the artist ends up making nearly no profit. It’s just unfair, to the artist and to the music industry as a whole. There are tons of people involved in making one song, it’s an intellectual property that should not be stollen, as people like us encourage such illegal websites to grow in numbers, before downloading a song from any of such illegal sources we suggest you think about the artists who will be bearing the loss.
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Saregama lets you download songs legally for cheap
Saregama has been a trusted music provider for the longest time. Saregama now allows users to download music for cheap. With the help of Saregama, you can now download original music for merely ₹4 and download HD-quality songs for ₹15. The best part is that these songs are 100% original and you will be able to download them in the best quality available. And here’s the best part, many other music providers in the market ask you to get a weekly, monthly or yearly subscription in order to download songs, but Saregama allows you to download individual songs as per your liking. That means you would just have to pay for songs that you actually want to listen to. So why should you have to risk your device and your data by downloading music from illegal sources when Saregama has made downloading music easier, more convenient and cheaper?
Additionally, Saregama also has a variety of products under the Carvaan series, wherein you can enjoy high-quality songs without any interruption or ads. Different Carvaan products come with different numbers of in-built evergreen Bollywood songs.