I pointed out three weeks ago the popularity of Apple’s iPod. Likewise, the popularity of MP3s has emerged as a heavy hitting force for both consumers and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

MP3s are no longer those secret illegal downloads that became synonymous with college students. Today, providers offer user-friendly, quality, legal downloads. Services such as the new Napster, Rhapsody and Apple’s iTunes are available. Illegal downloading services are still around, but the popularity of paying downloading sites has grown. Pay sites offer high quality and uncorrupted music files. These have been the very issues illegal programs and their users have struggled with.

I spoke with Shellaine Hudock, senior Social Science major, and the media supervisor at a local electronics retailer about some of these issues. Hudock herself uses several legal downloading services. “I use them because they offer things we don’t carry here,” Hudock said referring to the retail store where she works.

Hard-to-find music has been a big draw towards downloads, both legal and illegalAccording to the RIAA, profit comparisons from last year’s CD sales are minus 6 percent. If this is true, why hasn’t the RIAA established its own “official” MP3 downloading service?

The RIAA continues to pursue prosecuting users of illegal downloading services, but most people who use the programs don’t fear being caught. “I’ve done it a couple times,” said sophomore Criminal Justice major Cathy Vue. “Sometimes there is only one song that I like, so it would be a waste of money to buy the whole album.”

This is where the RIAA and the artists they represent should invest. The three of us, Hudock, Vue and myself, have purchased albums based on MP3s downloaded or streamed from the Internet. If the RIAA offered a service, they could include both individual track downloads as well as entire albums. This could both please the consumer and raise profits.

The benefit for the RIAA is two-fold: not only will an official service raise profits, but also a competitive market would decrease the use of illegal services.

As the recorded music format evolves, so must the industry. If consumers demand quality download services, the industry should meet those demands. For the RIAA, they must fight fire with fire. To raise profits and to discourage illegal downloading services they must find a way to meet the new standard.

Contact Andrew Stiffler at [email protected]