Technology Is Destroying The Music Industry

The current music industry is a hard business for all musicians, whether they are a new artist or even a popular radio artist. Modern times have radically changed the way that musicians now make money. Past musicians used to be able to make a living simply by selling their music and playing a few major concerts to survive and even lives some luxurious lives and not really have to focus on anything except the art that they were creating. The music industry has transformed from being an art to becoming a challenging business job for anyone involved. Today, most musicians have to also be able to handle managerial business to get anywhere and make money or find someone to help them. Current musicians need to do more than just sell music

The Music Industry has been a constant in the hearts of fans and the general public for years. During those years, music companies were ran a certain way that may have seemed successful for a while. Everything changed when Independent Record Labels were created. Music was revolutionized when the effects of Independent Record Labels took place, when Atlantic Records was created, and when founders, producers, and artists worked together to create a viable business and music outlet.

Napster was a digital file sharing program that was highly controversial. People say different things about Napster but vox says, “despite the rock ‘n’ roll ideals of free music for everyone, it changed the music industry forever – some would say for the worse”(vox). The music companies and musicians were deeply troubled by Napster. Was this the end of the music industry or was it just the beginning. Napster was founded by Shawn Fanning in May 1999(The napster controversy).

The ever-changing landscape of music distribution, due to constant advancements in technology, is sometimes hard to keep up with for artist, producer, and consumer alike. New editions of textbooks in Music Business classes are issued each year, and changes are made in the industry before the semester is even over. Because of this, it is vital for the industry to not only not only be aware of what is currently going happening, but also be able to foresee the direction that the music business is heading in. In this aspect, it seems that we are at a turning point where consumers and artists are taking

John Covach, the author of What’s That Sound, distinguishes the cultural elements of pop-culture/music within four distinct categories: social, race, business, and technology. Without a doubt, all four of these traits within pop-culture have been evolving and changing ever since the emergence of any pop-culture. The cultural themes of the always-changing society, business, and technology have indefinitely changed pop-culture and vice-versa. In my essay, I want to discuss how the technology and the evolution of technology affected the growth and modernization of popular music.

In 1999, three young men who were passionate about computer programming created a website that would bring an entire industry to its knees. As the three boys, Shawn Fanning, John Fanning, and Sean Fanning, worked hard on their project, they could’ve never imagined that their invention, a peer to peer music file sharing service called, Napster, would effectively revolutionize the way an entire generation created, delivered, and received its entertainment. Since then, the internet, file sharing, and the music industry has changed drastically. Since Napster’s invention in 1999 we’ve had millions of different similar services come about such as iTunes, Rhapsody. Roxio, YouTube, Spotify and NoiseTrade. Napster’s creation and then subsequent demise in 2002, sparked a controversy that still exists today, the effects of music downloading on music industry revenue.

The issues that will be slugged out in federal district court in San Francisco sound a little too pop culture to be all that serious. How many music CDs are people buying these days in record stores throughout the nation because of Napster? Is the technology that Napster uses legal? Napster is, of course, the wildly popular file-sharing service whose 20 million users have downloaded some half a billion songs--most copyrighted for free. The technology that Napster has brought to music listeners across the globe has allowed the freedom of obtaining music for free and should not be shut down by the entertainment industry's argument in federal court.

The music industry has changed in very quickly in so many ways it almost seems impossible. Thomas Edison recorded the first voice in 1877 and now we listen to hundreds of different types of music on devices that hold more information than the computers that sent the first astronaut to the moon. People have been getting music in tons of ways for the past hundred plus years and when the internet came into the picture, the music industry sky rocketed. People could get their own music out and be heard just by clicking a few measly buttons and using the internet to stream millions of songs with high speed. But even though the internet has helped the music industry by making it easier to distribute, advertise, and produce music, it still has its disadvantages.

“Before the days of YouTube and the Internet, a band 's chances of striking it big depended on record companies. If a band was lucky enough to get a record deal, it gained access to a label 's vast resources and connections. The company paid for the band 's studio time, … and got its music played on the radio, reaching millions of record buying Americans” (Majerol, 1). Now, anyone with talent can post a video of themselves and become an internet sensation, only to then receive a deal with a label to continue growing their career. The issue is, with the Internet came digital downloading, and with the growing popularity of digital downloading came illegal downloading, known as Digital Piracy, which has affected the music industry greatly. This issue affects everyone involved in the Music Industry. From the small CD store owner to the Artist on stage, everyone has and continues to be affected by the growing popularity of digital downloading services. Artists, producers, and songwriters lose an estimated 12.5 Billion USD every year to illegal digital music services. Further, the economic impact from [digital downloading] is an estimated loss of 2+ Billion USD (Storrs, 1). This money affects the “little guys” in the industry and the average worker within the industry.

The music industry is an oligopoly. Since the late 1800’s people like Thomas Edison have been buying up patents in communication technology, forming monopolies, leading to a non-competitive entertainment industry. With only a handful of corporations controlling all aspects of acquisition, distribution and marketing of music, harsh business principles create an exploitative industry that takes the best of what artists have to offer and leaves many of them unable to support themselves. Beginning in the 1950’s with payola and white cover music and ultimately evolving into iTunes and Spotify, the music industry has grown into a billion dollar industry with far-reaching influence and control. Contracts rarely serve the artists’ best interest and many are left out to dry when their usefulness has expired.

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

Over the past decade, the use of CDs has been replaced with online streaming and retailing. This has eliminated much of the record companies revenues as they were used to making most of their profit off of distribution and promotion of physical copies of artists albums (Niemen). This has caused for a major shift and remodeling of major players in the music industries business models. Companies such Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group have started to completely rethink the way they conduct business (Forbes). In the past record labels were not only responsible for production, distribution and promotion of an artist and his/her music, but they also acted as a bank (Forbes), funding the artists tours and recording sessions. Recently, these music giants have been moving towards becoming more of a modular network organization. What this means is that they are less occupied with the nitty gritty, and more focused on what they do best which is distribution and promotion. This also allows for more freedom of creativity for the artist as well as fairer split of profits (Forbes). This adaption of new business models clearly shows the versatility of the music industry in adapting to new times and technologies.

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.

Digitalization, data compression, and the internet have affected the music industry significantly. These technologies have shifted the recording industries from hard-copy recordings to digital music distribution. This has made it easier for consumers to enter the music market through copying. Consumers have access to copying technology that allows them to obtain music without paying the record label. The situations clipped high in 1999 when Napster, a file-sharing service was launched. The service facilitated music file sharing on a wider scale. The consumers just download the music and transfer it to a digital music device. This has negatively affected the trade value of music sales, for instance in

4.Ofcourse, music companies share a moral responsibility for what has happened. The main goal of this music companies is their profit from the music that they produce but it seems that they don’t see any benefit from this happening. Many people would prefer to spend their money on something else instead of purchasing pricey music unless they are fans. Fans won’t exist if the artist weren’t popular and artists wouldn’t be popular if there were no fans. There is no difference at all for a fan who bought an album of an artist and a fan who downloaded the artist music in the internet. Both are still fans who made the artist known. Technology like Napster did change the music industry both in a good way and a bad way. Let’s face it, nothing in this world is perfectly good or perfectly bad. Everything has its own bad and good side. Good because like what I just said, people who are thrifty or cautious of purchasing music may have a option to download it and listen to it for free and in this way, it is easily shared to anybody unlike physical albums. Not everybody visits the music store frequently. It’s bad side is it is very accessible to everybody like some music may contain harsh words which may influence the youth who downloads the music from the website and also physical album sales