Eminem and LeBron James Team Up to Expose How Music Industry’s Greed Fueled Piracy

Here’s how the music industry went from basically printing money to begging for pennies per stream.

Rap icon Eminem and NBA superstar LeBron James have joined forces to show how the music industry fought against digital piracy.

The series, titled “How Music Got Free,” looks at how file-sharing tech in the late 1990s and early 2000s shook up the booming CD market. It explores how the digital era forever changed the landscape of music consumption, causing huge money losses for the industry.

The Golden Age of CDs and Its Downfall

The series paints a clear picture of the music industry’s peak in the late ’90s.

This success, however, was built on greed.

CD technology had sent the industry’s profits sky-high.

Back then, CDs often commanded double the price of vinyl or cassettes. And, with production costs hovering around $2 for a CD retailing at $15, profit margins were astronomical.

Record companies continued to raise prices of CDs as they still rake in more profits despite the price hacks. But as they did so over the decade, they unknowingly fed a growing resentment among fans.

So, when Napster and other file-sharing sites showed up, the industry was caught off guard. Suddenly, the once-booming market faced a nosedive as fans discovered they could access music for free.

Even worse, when the internet started growing, many in the industry didn’t get it yet.

Key Players in the Piracy Revolution

Directed by Alexandra Stapleton, the documentary focuses on unlikely innovators in this digital shake-up.

One such figure is Dell Glover, as shown in a 2015 book by Stephen Witt, with the same name as the docuseries.

As a blue-collar worker at Universal Music’s CD manufacturing plant in Shelby, North Carolina, Glover smuggled pre-release albums online, hurting sales for big artists like Kanye.

According to the documentary, they smuggled CDs out in food trays and metal belt buckles, and then leaked them online. Glover even set up a subscription service for his piracy group, hinting at future business models like Netflix.

But the roots of this shake-up go deeper. The documentary traces it back to the 1980s “warez” scene, where teens removed copyright protections from video games.

And when Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute made MP3 tech in the ’90s, these tech-savvy youth used their skills on CDs. This built up the foundation of how digital music sharing could work.

Industry’s Response and Missteps

In addition to the problem, the music industry’s reaction to piracy was often harsh and didn’t work well. One executive even says it was like putting on “helmets like we were at war,” showing how they fought against file-sharing.

High-profile artists like Metallica’s Lars Ulrich publicly attacked Napster, while the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued many individual file-sharers. Even the FBI got involved when they conducted raids on suspected pirates.

However, this often backfired, making fans feel the artists were out of touch. It was evident that suing their own fans turned into a PR disaster.

Plus, the documentary also shows the money gaps at play.

Workers in CD plants, like Dell Glover, earned low wages while seeing the products they helped make bring in millions. This fueled a sense of justification among some pirates, as evidenced by Glover’s unapologetic statement.

“I didn’t feel bad. If they wanted me to be good, they should have paid me more,” says Glover.

So, despite the industry’s strong actions, piracy kept growing. 

This realization led to the rise of streaming services, which has changed how we listen to and share music.

Evolution to Streaming and Its Consequences

The move to streaming services marked a big change in the music industry.

At first, when Apple launched the iPod in 2001, it was mainly used for “storing stolen MP3s.”

It wasn’t until later that Steve Jobs introduced a way for fans to legally purchase individual songs. This allowed users buy only the tracks they wanted, greatly affecting the industry’s income.

But, Apple’s delay in fully embracing streaming opened the door for Spotify to become the dominant platform.

However, this convenience comes at a cost.

Streaming economics favor record labels over artists, with payouts from just $0.0013 to $0.01 per stream. This gap has led to big cultural and financial impacts as it pushed many middle-class musicians out of the profit pool.

For reference, here’s how much each platform pays artists per stream:

Legacy and Lessons Learned

“How Music Got Free” serves as both a cautionary tale and a testament to the resilience of the music industry. It shows the human cost of piracy beyond just artist royalties.

The documentary explores how the industry found its footing in the streaming era, offering useful lessons on adapting to tech changes. However, it also notes that while streaming has made the industry profitable again, many artists get only small shares of the profits.

As Eminem argues, “Here’s what you don’t understand if music should be free: I have an entire army of people that need their paycheck.”

Interestingly, the series praises the tech skills of the pirates, noting how their actions accidentally exposed listeners to more music styles.

But, it also doesn’t shy away from the consequences. Many pirates now have criminal records, including Dell Glover, who served a short prison sentence.

In the end, “How Music Got Free” suggests that the answers to working with tech might not come from big industries, but from cultural innovators working on the sidelines.