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How has the music industry been affected by the internet and digital downloading?
No one would call in question the fact that the World-Wide Web has had dramatic effects on the development of the music industry over the last few decades. As a matter of fact, things keep on changing at a quick pace. Some of the record companies and artists adjust to these changes very quickly and almost “free from pain”, but some of them are still struggling to remain on their feet. Still and all, “from early issues like illegal downloading and music sharing sites (like the now-defunct Napster) to current disputes over music streaming services and how much the artists/labels should be paid in royalties, the Internet still seems to be raising more questions than it is answering” (“How The Internet Has Changed Music”, n.d.). Nevertheless, it is not as bad as it may look. In fact, the Internet has not only made music more easy of access, it appears to be “an incredible tool that enables independent musicians to find a global audience without the help and backing of a major label” (“How The Internet Has Changed Music”, n.d.). Since the music industry continues to be modified by the new Internet technologies as well as digital downloading, I thought it would be interesting to investigate the market for sales of a music product and the influence of such technologies made upon the global music industry. I argue that the Internet along with downloading of data, and computer file sharing has altered the global music industry in two ways: positive as well as negative ones, but it does not signify the fall of the music industry.
It is a well-known fact that the music industry has its own hard and fast rules, which one must follow in order to achieve much success in the sphere of music industry. Nevertheless, my investigation shows that even such powerful and independent branch of industry is compelled to keep up to date and adjust to the new tendencies and ideas. Indeed, nowadays the music industry goes through shaky times. It is due to the fact that the digital revolution that has started at the close of the past century has turned the present state of things on its head. It is true that this equivocation of today’s situation makes sound-recording studios as well as record labels feel worried about their future. This is despite the fact that today people have more power than they have had in the 1990, for instance. They are able to express themselves more freely and without particular effort.
Speaking about the purpose of my paper, it was that to find out whether the introduction of advanced technologies into the music industry mean that it is the end of it. In fact, I have found a plenty of interesting and relevant information on this subject matter including statistics that show that the majority of music fans get the music by means of unpaid downloads, various opinions of young performers, who are trying to break into the music industry with the help of the Internet, and sociologists and music market researchers, who hold to the opinion that the implantation of advanced technologies by no means implies the end of the industry; it just means that some alternative ways of gaining money through digital downloading and file sharing will be discovered. More than that, I learned a lot about the way the industry functioned before the “digital overturn” and how it evolved into what it is today. In addition, I figured out the introduction of Napster, which provided subscribers with free music, was the so-called starting point of making music digitalized. In general, the common opinion is that the music industry observes “the inevitable march of all music toward [being] free’ (Pikas B., Pikas A., Lymburner, 2011). I think I have found such a great amount information due to that digital downloading and file sharing get strained attention of musicians as well as record companies’ owners, and music fans.
It was also curious to research various points of view of professional musicians, who have made their careers before the onrush of technology and those, who has become famous due to spreading of their creative work through the Internet. For instance, asked how the state of affairs in terms of the music industry has modified since the times when the musician has become a professional drummer, Paul Bostaph of the band Slayer said: “When I started recording and touring, there was no Internet. Over the years, music videos became popular, you had MTV, MTV changed, grunge came and went, rap has evolved, [and] heavy metal has been here the whole time. Also, the [advent] of the Internet” (“Slayer’s Paul Bostaph: How The Internet Has Changed The Music Industry”, 2015). Then he added the following: “That’s changed the music industry completely, because people are able to appropriate, download or get music for free – music from their favorite bands, which affects the income of everything. It’s changed the dynamic and the economics of the music industry and how it’s approached” (“Slayer’s Paul Bostaph: How The Internet Has Changed The Music Industry”, 2015). He stresses that this dynamic is very interesting but he does not regard it as a positive change. However, in my previous research I have found out that musicians-newcomers regard the Internet as the greatest tool that musicians have ever had and they are rather excited about it because they have managed how they can make a good thing of it. Indeed, they consider the introduction of technologies into the music industry to be an advantage due to the fact that it makes them being capable of managing themselves and promoting their creative work independently, without signing a record deal with labels that may to do the creative process a bad turn. Thus, it appears that the musicians of the old school and the young players have quite opposite attitudes towards the advanced technologies in the music industry.
In order to further my knowledge concerning the subject discussed I have studied additional sources and have found out that popular music has been the first branch of music industry, which “has been quick to adopt the Internet in pursuit of economic value, but in so doing has exposed itself to illegal file-sharing on an enormous scale, which has brought it into conflict with the very fans whose support it needs” (Choi, Burns, 2013). More than that, according to Hwanho Choi and Bernard Burns, it was so due to that it is the most omnipresent and widespread branch of the global music industry (2013).
Michael Endelman and Raymond Fiore claim that the influence of digitalized music is clearly delineated by the Hot 100 chart of Billboard, which is based on a combination of opinions of the radio audience as well as overall single sales, which is considered to be “the arbiter of mass-market popularity” (2005). They argue that though the last few years the industry has realized the power of music downloaders, who actually define the level of popularity of this or that musician or band. Moreover, it is a very unstable and unpredictable process; performers hit the top positions and lose it in a flash. Billboard’s representative Geoff Mayfield confirms that it has been much more challenging and difficult before the era of digital downloads (Endelman, Fiore, 2005).
What is more interesting is that they claim that there are well-defined advantages of music downloading for the record labels. To be more precise, it provides them with marketing aid, namely, the so-called virtual distribution, which helps to neglect costly manufacturing and shipping processes. Thus, the head of V2 Records corroborates that now “it’s incredibly easy. It’s a conversation and then just uploading the song” (Endelman, Fiore, 2005).
Speaking about the strong desire to survive, the music industry tries to establish certain rules that would help to protect the sound-recording companies from bankruptcy. They do not want to accept the sceptic opinion concerning that the introduction of the Internet defines the end of the industry. That is why, they once introduces the idea of the DRM, which is interpreted as the digital rights management. In actual fact, it is considered to be a copyright protection system, which “locks tracks purchased from legal download sites until a valid password is provided” (“Digital Downloading: Unlocked Download Tracks The Key To Success”, 2007). In addition, it restricts songs in such a way that customers are only allowed to play audio recordings available on the Internet on a restricted number of devices (for instance, MP3 players or laptops), which are “authorized” by their owners (“Digital Downloading: Unlocked Download Tracks The Key To Success”, 2007). Reportedly, the technology under consideration has not proven to be successful. Hence, “EMI’s announcement that it is to remove digital rights management software from premium digital downloads on iTunes should come as welcome news to retailers” (“Digital Downloading: Unlocked Download Tracks The Key To Success”, 2007). They added that, “digital rights management has done little to tackle the issue of piracy and, if anything, is acting as a bar on market growth” (“Digital Downloading: Unlocked Download Tracks The Key To Success”, 2007).
From this it follows that the digitalization of creative work of musicians has already made as well as continue having a great impact on the global music industry. Nevertheless, it is of particular importance to note that the Internet influences it in two different ways. Thus, while a rather great mount of people (especially those representatives of the music industry, who are record labels’ owners or musicians, who have made the career before the beginning of the “digital era”) keep hailing the World-Wide Web for making music more accessible, that is, easier and cheaper to get (or steal it by means of free downloading), the negative side of it is that the music business is fighting with this new technology, which does not allow to generate enough revenue for the record labels and musicians, who are signed to them. So, the majority of people, who are part of music making process “are paid in royalties, and anytime music changes hands without money being involved, those royalties can’t be paid – which is why so much has been done in recent years to try and reduce music piracy” (“How The Internet Has Changed Music”, n.d.). Of course, one should speak about that some progress has been actually achieved in order to keep back this unpleasant trend by introducing easy of access and cheap music downloads through such popular outlets as iTunes, or Amazon. In fact, it has helped because of that music consumers are now able to buy and download particular tracks they like, rather than purchase the artist’s whole album because of one song. However, the ad-based streaming services like Pandora or Spotify still do exist and are in demand. More than that, their relevance is still disputed by those, who make a living by making music and selling it “because the current pay structures are still far less than if a consumer buys the music outright” (“How The Internet Has Changed Music”, n.d.). Unfortunately for the labels, these particular issues are still far from being tackled, which is why many artists are forced to give as much performances on a tour as possible in order to fill up the loss of their income. However, the young musicians may derive benefit from the present state of things as such streaming services as YouTube can actually help to get into the music industry and obtain the record deal. More than that, it allows not to resort to the help of expensive producers and managers, and feel free while being in the process of making music.
Hence, despite the negative impact of piracy of digital property that does not allow to get enough money for musicians and record labels, the introduction of advanced technology into the music industry does not mean that today it is living the rest of its days. It just means that the sound-recording companies should try to find some alternatives to make up a deficiency caused by the negative impact of the era of digitalized music. In fact, the principle aim is to provide consumers with quality and competitively priced alternatives. In conclusion, one should stress that it has been important to study the issue in question because it is one of today’s hot topics that suggest a lot of discussion among those people, who are involved in the music making process along with music consumers.
Works Cited
Choi, Hwanho, and Bernard Burnes. “The Internet And Value Co-Creation: The Case Of The Popular Music Industry”. Prometheus 31.1 (2013): 35-53. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
“Digital Downloading: Unlocked Download Tracks The Key To Success”. Marketwatch: Global Round-Up 6.5 (2007): 180. Business Source Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Endelman, Michael, and Raymond Fiore. “Digital downloading increases music sales”. Entertainment Weekly, 2005. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
“How the Music Has Changed the Music Industry”. Recording Connection, n.d. Retrieved 8 Nov. 2015 from: http://www.recordingconnection.com/reference-library/recording-entrepreneurs/how-the-internet-changed-music/
Pikas, Bohdan, Anastasia Pikas, and Candice Lymburner. “The Future Of The Music Industry”. Journal Of Marketing Development & Competitiveness 5.3 (2011): 139-149. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
“Slayer’s Paul Bostaph: How The Internet Has Changed The Music Industry”. Screaming Guitars, 18 July 2015. Retrieved 8 Nov. 2015 from: http://screamingguitars.com/slayers-paul-bostaph-how-the-internet-has-changed-the-music/
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