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Music and the MP3 Essay

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Music is a form of artistic expression that encompasses almost all aspects of human society. Its uses within our lives range from simple entertainment to complex marketing and persuasion tools because of its ability to define our culture. Music may be seen as harmless and unproblematic, but looking at the structure behind its distribution provides insight to an extremely different realm of copyright laws and intellectual property rights. When one pays for copyrighted music, it is assumed that the money would go to the artists in the form of royalties as well as commission for the recording label that is distributing the compact disk or other formatted medium. Although this may be true, the process in which the money is divided among each …show more content…

The origin of the modern music industry is likely to have occurred approximately one hundred years ago, in concurrence with the industrial and technological revolution. During its infancy, the industry began as a means for artists to distribute their music to consumers within and beyond their spheres of influence. This would allow them to focus more on their musical endeavors rather than dealing with the logistics of distribution. As the mediator between the artist and the listeners, they were comprised of a handful of firms who were responsible for the production of most of the industry’s technological advancements. In a capitalistic fashion, they fought amongst one another for their clients to establish dominance over the way music would be produced and played. Control of the market by a couple firms actually resulted in a benefit for the consumers. Having a centralized format from which all artists would record and distribute their work created less of a hassle for the consumers in deciding through what medium they would like to consume the music. For the sake of convenience, however, the dominance of only a handful of organizations of the music industry also made it difficult for new companies to compete. Additionally, it allowed them to find ways in which to

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