Changes in the music industry
There have been many huge changes in the music industry in the past fifteen years. These many changes have profoundly affected everyone in the music industry from the recording artists and their music labels, from attorneys to consumers, and of course the companies that manufacture the gadgets and gizmos to keep listeners listening.
Fifteen years ago it was almost unimaginable to listen to free streaming music on your computer or to download music, let alone putting it on an iPod. No, a mere fifteen years ago Discmans, or portable CD players, were still all the rage and in fact basically the most advanced thing an average listener would use. Even these Discmans were relatively new to the scene and companies were still trying to advance the technology enough to make it so your disc wouldn’t skip when you moved. Disc skip protection was highly coveted amongst users for a mere 5, 10, or 30 seconds. Hard to imagine skipping music now!
Fast forward just a few years and the ability to and interest in downloading music was beginning to catch on. Websites like Napster and Kazaa helped set the stage for a new era of how consumers would acquire and listen to their music. This time period ushered in a litany of lawsuits and copyright infringement cases as well, and new laws and punishments for downloading music began to emerge. “Pirating” music began to become a household term and a widely known concept.
At this time, people would mostly download music to burn onto mix CDs. Even though these CDs would only have about 12-15 songs on them, the ability to have multiple artists and your own selection of songs on one CD was a great pleasure. Gone were the days of having to wait for your favorite song to come on the radio and run to try to record it to tape!
A few years later and things have changed a lot, and quickly, since those days. Now very few people listen to CDs on Discmans anymore; almost everyone can be seen rocking out to their mp3s on their iPods, cell phones and other portable media players. Thousands and thousands of songs, artists and albums can be kept in one place or on one player on the go. And at home, it is rare that people play CDs even on their home music systems; many opt to simply stream music through their computer, listen to online radio stations or play their mp3 collection.
Along with all the positives and conveniences that have come from this digitization of music, many challenges have cropped up too. Music piracy is a big issue now and there are hundreds of ways for people to acquire or distribute music illegally that are relatively difficult to control or track, which upsets many recording artists and their labels.
However, on the positive flip side, this digitization of the music industry has also made dissemination of new, fresh, unsigned talent much easier to reach the masses and new talent is heard and discovered across the world in a much faster and more independent way. Plus, some recording artists and labels actually embrace the easy sharing of digital files and will do special releases or albums for their fans specifically for free dispersal, which earns big nods and appreciation from the listeners.
It is interesting to try to guess what will come next for the music industry. Things are always changing in this digital age and the music industry has already seen a lot of major advancements and changes in only about 15 years!
Vera Mosley has been in the music industry for more than ten years and is now a writer for a music streaming website. When she is not scoping out the newest artists, Vera loves to travel and see the world.
