Download Services

Download services allow people to store files from the various online services on their hard drives. These services can include audio (often MP3 or WAV format), videos (Mp4, QuickTime, WMV and more), pictures (Gif, Jpg, Png, etc), apps, software, games and more. These files are then available for users to use without the use of the internet; this can be extremely useful in situations such as airplane and bus journeys, holidays and other such events in which the user would be unable to access the internet. To add to this, many programs are simply too large and complex to supported in a browser and therefore require distribution via download.

Apps -

Nowadays many mobile phones allow users to download ‘apps’ (such as games, gadgets and more) onto their devices. The two major online marketplaces for doing so are Apple’s ‘itunes store’ (http://www.apple.com/uk/) and ‘Google Play’ (https://play.google.com/store). These downloads have proved to be extremely popular that a hugely wealthy industry has been built up around them. An example of success in the app market is the game ‘Angry Birds’. ‘Angry Birds’ is a simple game in which the user must use a catapult to fire various birds into fortresses. Despite its simplicity, the game has made over $106 million in sales and has been downloaded more than 648 million times. Indeed its popularity is so great that ‘Angry Birds’ merchandise is now sold by many major retailers (including Toys R Us, Game, HMV and more).

Music -

As a result of the popularity of smart phones, iPods and various other music playing devices there has been an enormous increase in music downloads. So much so that music industry seems to be increasingly more focused on downloads. In 2011 the amount of albums sold via download in the UK increased by a huge 24% rise on the previous year; whereas CD sales decreased by 13% (Source - BBC News, see link for more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16382648). One of the huge advantages to downloading music is that users are often able to purchase songs without needing to own the full album; for example somebody could download ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen by Queen without needing to ‘splash out’ on the entire album, thus saving money and adding to the overall customer satisfaction of buying music. Some popular sites for music downloads include bandcamp (http://bandcamp.com/), Soundcloud (http://soundcloud.com/dashboard), iTunes (http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/), Napster (http://www.napster.co.uk/start), Spotify (http://www.spotify.com/) and Beatport (http://www.beatport.com/).   

Software -

It is now common for software to be distributed via download. One major company whom largely distribute their programs with downloads across the internet is Adobe (software developed by Adobe includes Photoshop, Flash, After Effects and more, website link: http://www.adobe.com/). To combat illegal downloading of their products they protect the majority of their software with serial keys (randomly generated numbers which allow user authentication). Despite this however, internet criminals are still able to obtain the software for free via the use of cracks and keygens (serial key generators).

Issues -

The major issue with download services is that some people are able to transfer copied files to others for free via programs and websites such as piratebay (http://tpb.pirateparty.org.uk/), Mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/), BitTorrent (http://www.bittorrent.com/), Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/) and more. The vast amounts of these illegal downloads are have a large impact on a variety of industries, the main two being music and video both of whom are losing literally billions as a result of the downloads (news story giving information about piracy in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19599527). It can also be crippling to smaller businesses which rely of the successes of their products download sales.