Does the emergence of the digital download signal the end for the music industry?

There are a number of events and changes that occurred within the music industry that caused the availability of digital downloads. In the 90’s german research company Fraunhofer claimed that their compression format would reduce the bit rate of digital audio without a loss in quality, this reduction in file size means that the MP3 is born. Until the birth of the MP3 it wasn’t possible to distribute digital audio over the internet, so while this new technology is a step forward it also comes with a big negative - piracy.
Websites like Napster, where people worldwide can share and get music for free brings problems to the music industry. 

Lessig suggests file sharing can be broken down into four main groups; substitute for purchasing, sampling before buying, gaining access to copyrighted music no longer available or to access non-copyrighted material. This suggests peoples reasons for downloading music should be accounted for however only one from the four is damaging and illegal to the industry. This confirms that piracy is not a signal for the end of the music industry.