To Örebro University

In this thesis, I focus on the current music listening habits of young people in the Czech Republic and Sweden and their recent development, as well as on the current state of music piracy and its evolution. By first describing the history of recorded music, the Internet and online piracy, I make ground for a survey among Czech and Swedish youngsters, examining the way they listen to music now and the way they did five years ago, thus exploring the development happening in the recent years as well as comparing both countries. The stories build on the results of this survey, using interviews with several individuals to shed more light on the research questions. Both the survey and the journalistic practice showed that probably the most important change we are facing now is the shift to the use of clouds instead of downloading music – in case of music in the form of streaming services such as Spotify. These services not only changed the music listening habits of people, but they as well limited the download of illegally downloaded music. On the other hand, online piracy has moved from the Internet to politics all over the world, with Pirate Parties being founded in many countries. The aim of the pirates of today is no longer sharing of copyrighted content, but also the fight for free Internet, which is facing more global regulations than ever.