For the focus of this dissertation, an online survey was conducted to gather information on the public's music purchasing habits to gain an understanding from a public point of view of the current trends in music purchasing. 83 people took part in this survey. Firstly, people were asked how often they buy music, as fig 5 shows, 26% of people who took the survey said they do not buy music at all. These people could be streaming or downloading music illegally. Following this, the survey asked how people would usually buy their music. 35% of people said they buy physical copies of music, plus 26% said they buy physical music and digital downloads. (Fig 5: survey results for question 2) Considering it has been argued that digital …show more content…
(Fig 7: Survey results for question 5) In a interview for 'Heavy Music Artwork' in 2016, album artwork designer, Zbigniew Bielak said that “digitally enhanced album covers have increasingly fallen out of favour, illustrated cover work has undergone a welcome revival". Here, he is talking about digital media being used to create album artwork. Illustrator Dan Mumford also said in an interview for this dissertation: “Over the last decade there definitely was a slight lull where budgets got slashed and the importance of the cover became secondary to having good merchandise for people to buy.” (appendix 1) It could be argued, that these two instances are due to the same thing – digital downloading. It makes sense that with the digital age taking over the music industry that there would be less want for a digitally created cover artwork. As Mumford has mentioned, budget cuts in designing artwork were a result of the cover becoming less important, presumably because less people are buying physical albums. This considered, he also mentions that people purchase merchandise with designs on more often than albums. Following the points Mumford made in his interview, one of the questions in the public survey was tailored towards this area. When asked if they owned any merchandise such as t-shirts with album artwork on it the results were as follows in fig 8. (Fig 8: Survey
The development of the cover through the 1950's and 1960's spurred many positive and negative connotations. However, these two pro's and con's are usually intertwined in some manner. A positive aspect to covers is it provided many artist in this instance R & B artists with large amounts of publicity and many financial benefits. These R & B artists thus spurred the creation of what is now know as "rock and roll" with the help of many established artists one in particular was Elvis Presley. However, many of these covers grew to be so popular that the original artist and genre of that song would be forgotten. Leading to the main connotation of covers, as these songs become more and more popular the roots and the original artist seem to become
there are numerous covers that I have personally encountered that added more to the original song to a point where the cover itself ends up delivering a very different experience and perspective to me. By comparing “In My Life” by the Beatles to Johnny Cash’s rendition of “In My Life”, we can see that through the differences in instrumentation, texture, and melody we end up receiving a subtly different song in terms of meaning and experience. And because such a difference can exist, there should be more value and appreciation towards music covers for breathing new life into
Artists have been losing revenue thanks to new methods of streaming and online purchases. This has brought on the more
When he found out his friend was going to release an album, he grasped at the opportunity to design the album cover. His design work for Zinker’s Mountains of Madness used an optical illusion. When the CD cover is in it’s plastic case, the design shows a calm man’s face. Once the CD is taken out of it’s plastic case, the man’s expression turns to fury with tones of red, white, and green. His design for this cover was praised, earning him four Grammy nominations.
According to age group, the market of rock music and pop music were dominated by the young generation aged from 16 to 24 and from 35 to 44 with a purchase record of approximately 35% and 28%. However, there was a remarkable incline percentage of people who buy classical music for those two generations. People from 25 to 34 years old preferred pop music and rock music most with purchase records of 36% and 32%. Differed from the other two generations mentioned above, they still purchased 15% classical music. There was
It can be argued that the music industry has expanded into countless genres, artists and record labels over the years since 2000 to become bigger than it has ever been. So where have all the sales gone? It’s more than evident that file sharing has become much more attractive to music fans than it once was. People haven’t lost their interest in music, but have instead found new ways of obtaining it. These File sharing software such as Azuerus give the everyday computer the ability to obtain any files it’s user would like with a good internet connection and a couple clicks of a mouse. In short, people no longer need to pay for any music that they would like to own.
A. Brownback explains in his essay the Power of Purchase. Consumers are the main focus when it comes to purchasing music.
Album covers are an important aspect in the music culture and industry. Many album covers vary, depending on the artist itself and music genres. However, all album covers are meticulously designed to represent an artist’s vision and work from their music. Musicians will choose an album artwork that represents them and their music. BADLANDS by Halsey and True Colors by Zedd are respectable examples of artists who choose their covers based on their inspirations. These two album covers are well thought of and beautifully created with depth and substance. Music is art, and so are album covers.
21st century marked the era of digital activity, and hence, the declining in physical sale of albums is replaced by active downloading activity of musical works.
Despite relevant findings, many individuals are under the impression that digital media services, such as digital downloading and streaming have a positive impact on the Music industry for reasons including music
Introduction: Setting the trend for the future, the distribution and consumption of recorded music transformed dramatically with the launching of Apple’s iTunes in 2001. The proliferation of online music subscription services and other music sharing services exerted a great pressure on the conventional music distribution business model. Combined with this transformation, piracy of digital music had a profound impact on the whole industry. These worsening conditions in the market place for recorded music forced both established and upcoming new artists to experiment with new ways of selling their music.
In the midst of the United States’ “dot com bubble” (years 1997-2000), there was a surge in technology that brought about file sharing and digital downloads. Threatening the survival of the music industry and introducing a unique set of challenges for the industry to overcome. To remain relevant in the new global market of digital music online, the music industry would have to evolve and change with the introduction of each new facet technology had to offer. The introduction of digitally compressed music files, so easily attainable for a small fee or downloaded legally (pirated) for free, made the music industry reevaluate how to make a profit and protect copyrights. Social media created a visible opportunity for both consumers and artists to maintain digital relationships while providing a platform for consumers to follow and discover new musicians and bands, naturally, making the internet a promotional medium for artists. As the corner record shops closed to make way for virtual storefronts and instant downloads; the internet, digital downloading, and social media made an enormous impact on the music industry that has changed the way consumers purchase, source, listen to, and produce music today.
Since the iTunes music store was introduced on April 28, 2003, gross music sales have plummeted in the United States - from $11.8 billion in 2003 to $7.1 billion in 2012, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (Covert). Counterintuitively, during that time consumers were buying more music than ever. How is that possible? It 's because iTunes had made digital singles popular and was selling them cheap. This would change the music industry forever. In 2000, Americans bought 943 million CD albums (Covert), and digital sales didn’t even make a dent in comparison. But by 2007, those inexpensive singles overtook CDs by a wide margin, generating 819 million sales compared to just 500 million for the CD.
Nowadays, teenagers are living constantly surrounded by technology. Even if the younger generation may not see it, technology has had an impact on different factors. The widespread use of digital technology in the music industry has allowed consumers to reproduce digital versions of copyrighted songs inexpensively, with the help of many software and websites. There has been an increase in digital copying activities and those are most of the time claimed responsible for producers’ loss in revenues. While some people claim that the increase of digital technology has killed the music industry, in fact it has lead to innovation and new ways of consuming and sharing music, such as
The evolution of the music industry follows the familiar pattern of digitization. Innovation began with the introduction of the vinyl record, transitioned from the cassette tape to the compact disc and landed us in an era of digital downloads. The emergence of music streaming services like Spotify has progressed the industry even further, giving consumers the ability to access music on demand using download-free online platforms. Spotify faces criticism from artists as a result of the overlap of creativity and commerce. They argue that business activities corrupt creativity, transforming it into a tool for profitability rather than an outlet for expression. Artists insist that Spotify deters album sales, favors established artists and fails to support them financially. However, Spotify was created for consumers. It delivers an accessible alternative to purchasing and downloading music. The interplay between creativity and commerce is changing the nature of the music industry. Spotify has adapted to this change, providing a platform that supports both artists and consumers. Through analysis of the market, artist’s revenue, record labels and consumers, I will argue that artists should accept the evolution of the industry and support Spotify.