Technological Influence On the Music Industry

The technological input in music industry evolution can’t be underestimated. Various innovations are implemented every year. The whole process of creation a music and its distribution has changed in recent years. The appearance of such phenomenon as streaming music influences the music industry making it adapt to the new conditions and opportunities.

New business model

The business model of the way the music industry makes money and the way consumers purchase music goods and experience them has changed significantly with the streaming audio delivery. Purchasing of the disk is replacing by browsing songs online. No one can say for sure where the music industry is headed, but everyone is sure that increased access and affordable streaming is going to grow. While some people consider this changes as something bad paying attention to the fact that such mass distribution deprives new albums and songs their value, the others believe that streaming helps to fight the piracy which exploded in the early 2000s with appearance such sites like Napster. Right now the consumers and artists themselves have more control over such issues as decisions on new releases and their date, the discovery of new talents, not record labels and executives. Artists involvement in multiple aspects of the industry increases. Now artists are occupied in not only music production and records selling, but also touring and merchandising. Artists themselves are looking for new ways to make money, they have to think outside of the box. Since the music became a digital product record sales give the wall to the royalties. The audience is changing step by step, now teenagers present a new type of people, they are “digital natives,” they don’t buy records, they listen to music on the Internet, they prefer Kazaa to iTunes, and they are the future. Artists should defer to this fact and adapt to this new audience. Spotify, in this case, can be considered as a huge achievement in the music industry, as far as it learns customers to pay for the music.   

Digital files, software, and the Internet outlets

Before the streaming music, the only way for artists to become famous and promote their artwork was to sign to the label, today it is not. To record a song, artists needed a fully-equipped with studios, equipment was incredibly expensive and only professional could understand how it works. Common artist hardly could puzzle out what all the buttons on the control board are for. Now it is far cheaper to record music and easier to use the equipment. Digital music even doesn’t need that much of equipment, with all these recording apps developed by various software companies in London and all over the world, a laptop can become a home recording studio with all these music recording apps. Furthermore, the risk to manufacture CDs isn’t significant in the digital world. The music digital files are unlimited. Unlimited is also the access to music discovery outlets for everyone, not just those who hold a contract with labels. Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, the Weeknd, Björk they all are examples of successful indie artists. And it is a normal tendency considering that the Internet is full of various sources and distributors of information like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Slacker, Pandora and all the variety of blogs. The necessity in labels isn’t relevant for artists anymore. They can record, manufacture, distribute their artworks by themselves. Musicians don’t need millions to become popular. If an artist wants to let people know about him and his artworks he may give access to his songs on various platforms, distribute information about himself and get feedback gradually gaining the popularity. There are numerous apps that can help artists to manage their music files and connect them with fans and listeners. For instance, young artists who want to distribute their songs and increase their visibility in user searches can login in SoundTracking app. From there they can instantly share their songs on various social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, add pictures and hashtags. For the beginners, it is a great platform to promote the music. Another good application to get discovered is a SoundCloud. With more than 250 million mobile app users finding a target audience and personal listener getting much easier. The artists can even create their own app with MobBase which will represent their brand. One app will let musicians connect with their fans, share music, videos, photos, useful information and more. Technologies provide artists with incredible opportunities they just need to use them.