The People 's Platform : Taking Back Power And Culture

When wanting to listen to a song today, one no longer has to buy or download a physical copy. In today’s world, streaming has become one of the top ways of retrieving music content. This major change has led to a profound shift for the music industry and its artists. It has developed a continuous conflict that affects the way music is distributed and how artists make a living. Listeners stream music electronically through their computers, phones, cars, and more. Most of these streaming platforms allow for the content to be free, which directs to the question of whether music should be free or not. Streaming is a topic that has presented itself to be a valid issue on whether it ultimately hurts or helps artists and their careers. Streaming has both pros and cons, but in order to aim to figure a possible solution there needs to an examination of the history of the issue, a proper analysis of both sides, and evaluating its importance.

With technology growing more and more each day, it is no surprise that the music industry is transitioning to rely more and more on online sales. However, problems can arise from this when artists are taken advantage of by people who illegally download their music off of the internet for free. When one college radio host publically stated that she illegally downloaded her music, a professor by the name of David Lowery saw a problem with this and decided to speak up about it. He wrote a letter addressed to the college radio host, Emily, called “Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered”. With this, he also addresses the general public and calls them to make a change in their music buying, or lack thereof, habits. He explains that illegally downloading music is not a harmless task and we must understand the effects that it has on the artists as well as the music industry as a whole. While Lowery has strong uses of ethos, logos, and pathos, his conversational and

The purpose of this memo is to better understand how the cloud has changed the music industry for both artists and users. This is an evaluation of 5 of the most popular cloud-based music streaming applications. These applications allow people to have access to more music than ever before, wherever they are. Each app has different features that may make them appealing to different people, so it is important to evaluate them to see strengths and weaknesses.

Figure 3 Flow chart showing the change in the way music is distributed with the entrance of new actors such as streaming services (Oestricher & Kuzma, 2009)

Music will never be obsolete, the medium may diminish but the music will remain. These pivotal issues are where we as individuals who become formally educated in the industry work to keep it afloat. These issues range from artists not receiving or earning very little royalty payments, artists and musicians having a harder time becoming mainstream due to the ease of access to technology, cancelled concerts because of low ticket sales, and rising ticket prices and inflation from resellers; The list is vast. The key to researching one of these fascinating topics is first identifying my goal for the research. In finding a topic that I believe progresses the industry I need to present a diligent case study that I nurtured. At first, I thought about building a new module to the form new standards for RIAA Certifications but then I realized that Adele has sold over 7 million copies of “25” and is currently number one on Billboard. This is the follow up album to “21” that never left the charts before her next album was released. I also recalled a night of watching a jaw-dropping episode of Scandal only to have Beyoncé unhinge what was left of my mandible when she released “Beyoncé” out the clear digital skies. It appealed to me because I can recall as a middle schooler anticipating first week sales of my favorite artists. I am not sure if that was normal 11 year old behavior but I will own it! We can agree that most of these artists possess a unique spark that allows them to prevail against the negative elements, so researching their creative footprint would not necessarily benefit upcoming artists as having a niche of their own is key. In my navigation through technology and my observations of the industry I have noticed a general upset when it comes to award shows as it pertains to nominees and

In “The Music Industry Has Been Revolutionized,” Greg Kot explains musicians in the music industry are experiencing unwanted change around the world from technology since the popularity of file-sharing websites available online. Consumers of music don’t want to pay for music because of the increased availability, although not doing so prevents revenue for musicians. Explained in Kot’s article, increased popularity of file-sharing has made access to music so convenient to the point where the music industry is confused about how to respond to the lack of revenue while still keeping music readily available for consumer use. New technology has allowed the music industry more opportunities in being efficient with producing music. Furthermore, it

3-4). While these statistics provide a look into the numerical growth of the streaming industry, it is also important to discuss the power that these streaming services have generated—over both the music industry and over established/aspiring artists. Subscriptions are on the rise, having increased significantly over the past ten years, but as is the amount of users streaming music on a free-trial or ad-supported basis—ultimately undercutting the music industry and artists alike. Blewett and Gollogly (2017) elaborate on this point, stating that, by the end of 2016, paid music streaming subscriptions drove a revenue growth of 60.4%—this growth more than offsetting a “20.5% decline in downloads” and a “7.6% decline in physical revenue” (Blewett & Gollogly, 2017, para. 4). Moreover, Borja and Dieringer (2016) explore the concept of streaming even further in their academic article, positing that the decline in paid digital downloads may be a direct result of streaming—as, music streaming can be perceived as a “complement” for music piracy, in which listeners can freely sample music to pirate later on (Borja & Dieringer, 2016, p. 1). The authors also suggest that streaming can provide a “venue for discovering and listening to new releases”; and after completing their 1052 surveys, conclude that streaming increased the likelihood of piracy by

“The Internet was a saving grace for promoting and exposing and even creating. It's a parallel world to the music industry that already exists, and I'm glad to be a part of it” Chuck D. I had the pleasure of seating down with Billy Johnson JR, and he is a vet in the game. He’s been a music journalist for over a decade. He’s work for yahoo news for 18 years and has interviewed everyone you can think of such as Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, and Snoop Dog. One of the several points he has made was the over saturation in the music industry. I do agree with him because it makes it look simple by recording and uploading a song to be picked up by a record label. Things were so simple back when I was growing up in the early 90s eras. I mostly relied on

Over the years, music has become portable, starting with the transistor to a set of headphones. Technology has allowed us to create a diverse musical culture. Music will always have an effect on one’s culture, and it has definitely mad a huge impact on the use of technology. Cultural diversity is about bringing people closer together though the World Wide Web. Many music publishers are the key to cultural diversity when it comes to publishing all genres. They will increasingly continue to play a part in promoting diversity by bringing music of all kinds and forms to the music market. The way we access and listen to music has changed a lot in the music industry. For some, it may seem easier to download your favorite song from your favorite artist, but there are rules to the file-sharing and downloading of music. Before there was file-sharing, people would gather in concert halls for impressive music from some of the best known composers of all time. Today, there has been an abundance of ways to access and listen to music, in writing this paper, my goal is to discuss copyright laws, file-sharing, and the progression of how we access music.

The Music Industry’s everlasting challenges have most recently undertaken targeted the digital consumption of music. As technology increases accessibility with media, specifically music, companies such as Spotify, Rhapsody, and Pandora have all taken a leap toward the online-streaming subscription route. Unfortunately, due to the lack of support from Artist’s and their management in the past, piracy of digital music, and matching royalty rates with their limited revenue streams, these companies face the difficulty of becoming the go-to access for music consumption.

“A decade’s worth of music file sharing has made it clear that the people it hurts are the creators... and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.”

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.

In October 2014, Taylor Swift released her latest studio album 1989, and by year’s end it had become 2014’s best-selling album with over 3.6 million copies purchased. Many fans had also anticipated listening to her newest work through the popular on-demand music streaming service Spotify. Instead, a week after the album’s premiere, Taylor Swift pulled her entire discography from the site (Mansfield). Her actions have since sparked a debate over the impact of on-demand music streaming in today’s music industry. Currently, on-demand music services are most beneficial to customers, major music labels, and well-known artists.

Goldman (2010) said that the music industry was worth half of what it was a decade ago and the drop does not look like it will be slowing down anytime soon. As Goldman (2010) further explains, the insiders and experts within the industry stated that the substantial decline was the emerging popularity of digital music. The “disease of free” started when Napster, a free online file-sharing network, helped alter the way most people got music, where CDs costs $14 to a point where it was free. When iTunes debuted, many of Napster’s users started using other file-sharing methods to get music for free. The songs offered for just 99 cents on iTunes was not as attractive as free.

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.