Illegal downloading: good or bad?

As a struggling musician, one of your biggest fears is to have all your music taken away from you. Or even worse, not to get the credit you deserve for the hard work you put in. Illegally downloading music has been an ongoing issue for quite some time and many people are still on the fence. But is it all really so bad?

Those for downloading music argue:

• The cost; no fee to download music.

• Easy access; Music that you would otherwise have to go out in stores and purchase is now a click away.

Those against argue:

• Artists don't get the deserved credit/pay

• It's illegal.

Both have valid arguments, but can there be a positive outcome for musicians?

Drake's album "Take Care" for example, was due to be released on November 15. But somewhere between this past Saturday night and Sunday morning the album got leaked onto the Internet.

The album became a trending topic on Twitter, getting nearly everyone to place one-liners from his songs as their statuses.

Drake didn't seem too upset over the leak though. Instead he tweeted Sunday night “Listen, enjoy it, buy it if you like it... and take care until next time." This had people tweeting "buy the Take Care album”.

Although there’s an obvious loss in album sales, through concerts and merchandise, money is still made. Word of mouth creates so much hype around an artist’s music and gets people listening to it.

More people will get to the music if it’s free, building attention around the artist. So in the end, is downloading music really all that bad? You tell me.