preview

The Problem Of Digital Media Essay

Better Essays

The "business" of music has a deep and dense history, music itself began as a means of communicating emotions from pleasure to pain and everything in between, the "business" of music became a money making proposition. The average person may believe that an artist’s success is defined by hearing their music on the radio or when they perform to a big stadium audience. An artist’s measure of success, however, is more likely that moment at which they sign a record deal. Before the most recent technological advancements, a record deal was the single factor thought about as having the power to potentially skyrocket an unknown artist 's career into the next level. As a result of the digital age, record labels’ utilization has shifted. We (of this generation) are well aware that digital media also has the power to launch a career. For example, Adele was discovered on Myspace at 18 years old in 2008 and currently has the highest one-week sales of an album in music history (Lansky, 2016). If a "career" is launched because of social medial followers, the path to monetization usually starts with the very exciting step of an artist signing with a record label. This technological revolution has given birth to the second-generation record label called "indie" (independent) labels adding a new additional component to the previous and only option of the major label.
What is interesting about this shift, is the recent struggle we see major labels facing as a result of trying to be a bit

Get Access