Sorry for this being a little bit long guys!
It’s hard to keep up with the whole concept of music sharing online nowadays. Back in the days of CD’s and cassettes the only way of accessing or purchasing music was to head down to your local Woolworths (R.I.P) or reputable music store and buy them. Nowadays there has been a dramatic change in accessing and consuming music.
Once again new technology has changed the consumption of music. Thanks to the internet you no longer have to go to the shop and buy an album or wait for it to be released. You can now download entire albums at the click of a button, access them for free and even download them before they’re meant to be released in this country. The idea of being able to download music for free on programmes such as ‘Limewire’ may sound appealing, but it is illegal. There are some legal websites which you can buy music from such as ITunes and Napster. These sites usually sell songs/albums at a cheaper rate than in shops which makes them much more appealing to their audience. I have an Itunes account where I buy most of my music. It is cheaper than buying a single or album in a shop, but sometimes you can get carried away and overspend as all you have to do to purchase a song is click ‘buy’. 79p per song seems cheap but it can easily mount up! One thing I do miss when buying songs of the internet is that you don’t have a CD case. Sometimes it’s nice to have the actual CD and its case as you can lend them to friends and it’s nice to have a browse through the album sleeve.
Radio has to be mentioned here also. You can now access radio stations on the internet and through I-player. You can also buy DAB radios. This suggests that other medium are keeping up to date with this new popular way of music consumption and distribution.
There is also a legal music site called Spotify. Spotify enables you to listen to songs (but not download) without having to pay for them. It is legal as in-between each song they play advertisements. This is a way for people who cannot necessarily afford to buy albums from a shop or from internet sites to listen to their favourite music legally.
It can be suggested that these ideas have greatly changed popular music. Networking sites such as MySpace enable unknown artists from all over the world to create a profile and upload their music for everyone to listen to. This idea implies that anyone has a chance in the music industry. It also allows artists to create an online fan base. The days of having to send in a demo to a music company is being forgotten. Well known singers and bands such as Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys and Sean Kingston were all founded on MySpace, managed to get record details and have now taken the music industry by storm. Sites such as Youtube also help these artists to show their talents as they can create their own independent music videos and show gigs that they may have taken part in to wider audiences. Our society seems to revolve around music the moment, especially when it comes to television shows such as The X-Factor, Pop Idol and Orange Unsigned acts, as these too all enable people who think they have musical talent to show what they can do.
I personally feel that media companies will always be needed. Many of the artists that showcase their music on sites such as MySpace are aiming to get music deals with these companies. These networking sites are merely just a way of promoting their material quicker and to a wider audience. Also these companies have the knowledge of how to promote bands positively and accordingly enabling artists to get the best media coverage. This can only make you question what may be in store for the music industry as the Internet continues to develop; will it continue to change popular music?? Do any of you guys have any crazy ideas as to what may happen to music industry? Here’s a question for you, do you think any of this will it affect radio stations. Fair enough you can now access radio stations on their websites but could this be the actual end to the radio that we used to know and love before the digital change?
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rincy
ReplyDeleteDAB doesn't really come up with the goods though does it? It doesn't use digitality to allow interactivity to much of a degree -and amateur production is undermined by broadcasting costs?
ReplyDeleteI'd say that Inet radio is more interesting with local expertise (say Jamaican Ska) being made available globally and a small group of fans being able to launch a specialist station cheaply?
There are £100 'internet radios' that can use wireless networking to access the Inet and find/store up to 4000 stations! (I use my laptop and a microwave portable speaker to do the same thing for £30)