Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:00a.m. Much like climate change and the moon landing, there are several myths about music downloading that crop up again and again – some through genuine misunderstanding, others through deliberate misinformation.

Here are a few I keep hearing on a regular basis, and the truth behind them.

MYTH: The music industry is collapsing due to illegal downloading.
REALITY: Total spending on music has actually increased in recent years, if figures in the UK have been duplicated elsewhere. In 2008, the UK music industry was worth £3.6 billion, up 4.7 pecent on 2007. How was this possible? Well, while sales of recorded music were down, revenue from live performances and other income streams such as licensing and advertising was up 10 percent. With legit streaming services becoming increasingly popular in the past year, this trend will likely continue.

MYTH: Digital rights management on downloaded music protects legitimate purchases and prevents illegal downloading.
REALITY: DRM punishes those who buy music by giving them a product inferior to that available for free from illegal sources. DRM does not stop anything – music, software or games – from being available via P2P services, and only serves to frustrate genuine customers. Despite most stores moving away from DRM, industry representatives are still fighting for it – probably because it means they can sell the same music to the same people over and over when they get new computers.

MYTH: Artists are financially punished by illegal downloading.
REALITY: As noted above, total spending is up – it is only sales of recorded music that is down. Artists and songwriters get a far bigger share of money earned through airplay, licensing, and live performances than they do through sales of CDs. Labels, who rely on sales of recorded music, are losing money hand over foot, yes; but the songwriters and artists? Not necessarily so. Many in fact say increased exposure of their music leads to greater ticket and merchandise sales, of which they take a greater share. Of course, the voice of the industry tends to be that of the labels, who claim to speak on behalf of the artists – but newly-independent superstars like Trent Reznor and Radiohead, and coalitions of lesser-known artists like the Creative Freedom Coalition shows that the labels' view of right and wrong isn't always shared by those they claim to represent.

MYTH: Metallica sued 300,000 fans for downloading their albums through Napster.
REALITY: Metallica's campaign against Napster did lead directly to its closure, but what gets lost in the anti-Metallica tirades that seem to accompany any mention of the band anywhere on the internet is that at least initially, their concern was over a legitimate theft, not a copyright infringement – and they never sued any of their fans, as is often thought. An early, demo version of their unreleased song 'I Disappear' was getting radio play, and the band sourced the leak to Napster, where they found their entire catalogue available for free. They asked Napster to remove their music, and when Napster refused, Metallica gave them a list of 335,435 names of people who downloaded their material through the service. Napster banned the users on Metallica's list, as well as a further 230,142 that downloaded songs by Dr Dre. Neither artist sued any of their fans who were free to move to any of the P2P services that emerged in Napster's wake.

MYTH: P2P software is illegal.
REALITY: P2P software is completely legal – it's what you do with it that can be considered illegal or not. Distribution through P2P software is highly efficient and takes the load off centralised servers, so is ideal for distributing large files such as Linux operating systems, material released on free/Creative Commons licenses and more. Much like knives and cars can be used for legal or illegal purposes, so can P2P software. The difference is, you can't really kill someone with a Limewire application.

MYTH: Illegal downloading is 'theft'
REALITY: It's not theft – theft implies there is nothing left behind, that the original owner loses use of what has been stolen. It's copyright infringement – a completely different legal area and set of laws.

MYTH: The number of people downloading music illegally is increasing every year.
REALITY: Recent studies suggest downloading might now actually be on the decline – probably because of the emergence of legit online streaming/radio services like Spotify and Last.fm.

This is just scratching the surface. In my view, ad-supported streaming services will be the key to stopping illegal downloading – and a financial goldmine for labels. Since radio has formatted itself into irrelevancy, and record stores cannot compete with the convenience of the online world, the internet is fast becoming the go-to place for new music. What do you think?