The Pirate Bay is a Swedish torrent indexing site that provides the location of torrent files held by private individuals to others via a search facility. Since its inception and subsequent rise to prominence on the internet and in its home country TPB has been harassed by media company heavies like Web Sheriff accusing them and other torrent sites of hampering the careers of emerging artists, stealing music illegally, and being 'morally' wrong.
P2P is a reaction to the death of independent radio and the invaluable service it once provided: exposing people to new music. In the United States the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act allowed a small group of large companies such as the much-reviled Clear Channel to consolidate ownership of that country's radio stations. Instead of independently determined playlists which allowed for the evolution of local scenes distinct from the nation one, America faces a small, centrally-selected cadre of songs which are played endlessly on every estation from Boston to San Diego. This is good news for the industry, because a reduction in musical diversity leads to an increase in demand for the small group of artists the industry choses to promote, so record companies can take advantage of economies of scale to their great financial benefit.
The good news is that people unwilling to be force fed a diet of alternative rock haven't given up on music altogether to live in silence from now on. Far from it: the grassroots rebellion is more than underway, it has almost secured its victory. The new music distribution system of the 21st century is the blogosphere, archived and presented by aggregators like HypeM and Elbo.ws. Sites like these provide a volume and variety of music that far exceeds the wildest hopes of Radio Caroline or other pre-digital opponents of radio consolidation.
The P2P 'revolution' has nothing to do with stealing. It's about circumventing the enforced channels that media companies have constructed to guard their increasingly obsolete role in the creation and consumption of media. After years of submission to a wireless set that pumps out the same 10 Bon Jovi/Guns 'n' Roses songs every day on every channel the world's music consumers are delighting in the their new choices for entertainment. New music delivery sites are not faceless organisations with a profit-based agenda; they are individual bloggers expressing their personal tastes and sharing their experiences in an environment which automatically rewards those who are best at what they do. A lot could be said here about the role of other technologies like Google AdSense in automating the process of direct-reward for popularity, but this is another topic for later praise.
In the meantime, the amount and variety of new music available to web users continues to grow. Enjoy it.
