New Media and

the Music
Industry
I dont even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I
dont think its going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same
way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about
music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop itDavid Bowie (excerpt from the 2002 New York Times article David Bowie, 21st
Century Entrepreneur by Jon Pareles)

Nature of the technological

development

Two factors that have played heavily into recent changes within the music industry 1. The
increasing presence of the Internet and 2. The arrival of social media, from Facebook to
YouTube. These two seemingly unstoppable forces have once again rewritten all of the rules
just as vinyls, CDs, cassette tapes, and music television stations did before them
Before listening to music online was second nature, the compact disc was the reigning king in
the music world. Sold by millions, lauded for its convenience and portability, and heralded as
the final say in music technology, the CD looked, for a time, to be the pinnacle. And then the
MP3 player was popularized with the introduction of the iPod in the early 2000s, and the
music industry changed overnight. Suddenly, people were buying less CDs and were
increasingly buying digital albums instead, or even individual songs, which was a revelation
at the time. And just like that, the CD all but went extinct.
Though the Internet may not be solely responsible for the death of music television there can
be no doubt that the Internet in general, and YouTube in particular, has made the very
concept all but moot. Television simply cant hope to compete with the Internet, either in
terms of making media available on demand or in terms of making media available to as
large an audience as possible.
Justin Bieber is a perfect example of what can happen through social media. Through word of
mouth alone, he went from a kid on YouTube to a worldwide sensation in a few short years.
And that is because with platforms like Twitter and Facebook, word of mouth is no longer
limited to you and your friends. Trending topics go worldwide not just in days or hours, but
minutes, and individuals can find their 15 minutes of fame come on strikingly fast.
When it comes to listening to music online, there may be no better way than through a
streaming provider, like Pandora or Spotify. In fact, the services have become so popular that
new names are entering the industry every day.

History of the technological

development
Phonograph - Thomas Edison1877. Before this invention music listeners could only listen to
their favorite songs when someone else was playing them, whether in a concert hall or at
home. Music has been an important part of human culture since prehistoric times but the
phonograph completely revolutionized its consumption.
Flat-disc records - 1890s. The recording was etched onto a disc that would be recognizable
even today as a record
Radio - Although radio technology had been around since the early 20th century, it wasnt
until later that music started to hit the airwaves. During World War 1, the US Congress
suspended all amateur radio broadcasts, meaning that many stations went off the air
permanently. But 1XE of Medford, Massachusetts, was broadcasting music in 1919, shortly after
the end of the war, and in the following years, more music radio stations began to pop up.
Portable music The transistor 1947. It was integrated into radios, allowing them to be made
smaller and portable, instead of the large, stationary ones typically associated with the golden
age of radio. In the 60s and 70s, billions of these radios were built, making easily portable
music a reality.
Tape cartridge - It wasnt until 1964 that home audio would unite around a new format: the
8-track tape. Bill Lear, of the Lear Jet Corporation, along with representatives from Ampex,
Ford, General Motors, Motorola, and RCA worked together to improve the technology that had
been previously developed for the 4-track tape, which itself had been an improvement on the
3-track model. By the late 60s, all of Fords cars were offered with an available 8-track player
as an upgrade, and hundreds of tapes were released, with the catalogue soon rivaling that of
vinyl.

History of the technological

development
The Walkman - 1979: The introduction of the tiny portable stereo tape player helped even more of the
music-listening public accept tapes as a viable home and personal music medium. It changed how people
listened to music; no longer tied to large home record players or large, inconvenient portable tape decks,
listeners could easily take their music with them wherever they went. And because the first Walkman
included two headphone jacks, music could be enjoyed with a friend.
CDs - 1980s that the first commercial compact discs (CDs) appeared.
Erasable discs - 1983, the first experiments with erasable discs were revealed, paving the way for the later
CD-RW (re-writeable), which superseded the CD-R (recordable) in the mid-90s. The cost of both the CDs and
recorders able to write to them fell quickly, making these discs, at least temporarily, universal.
MP3 Player - The first portable MP3 player was Audio Highways Listen Up MP3 player, released in 1996,
closely followed by that launched in 1997 by Saehan Information Systems, which sold its MPMan player in
Asia in spring 1998.
Napster - The inevitable rise of peer-to-peer music sharing resulted in one of the most infamous companies
of the Internet age: Napster. Napster was a simple, free peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing service; it wasnt the
first, but its focus on MP3 sharing catapulted it to almost 25 million verified users in February of 2001.
Apple iPod - 2001. Due to the iPods popularity; its small size helped catapult it to the forefront of the MP3
player scene.
ITunes - iTunes debuted in 2001 alongside the iPod as the worlds best and easiest to use jukebox
software. More important was the release in 2003 of iTunes 4, which included the iTunes Music Store,
Apples entry into the music sales business.
Biggest early music streaming service - Launched in 2005, Pandora pioneered the style of music
recommendation service that would grow to become one of the biggest trends in modern music.

Media institutions affected by

the development

Streaming is playing an increasingly important part in the business of Big Scary Monsters, a small Oxfordbased independent record label run by 30-year-old Kevin Douch.
His label represents about 10-to-15 bands at any one time, including the up-and-coming punk band
Gnarwolves.
"Although the internet has always been massively important for my business, allowing me to sell direct to
fans, I've always viewed streaming as a promotional tool rather than a revenue generator
Some of his artists are getting hundreds of thousands of streams through Spotify with the added bonus
that they can link to merchandising on their own websites without Spotify wanting a cut of the revenue.
The core business of record companies is investing in artists in order to break them to large audiences.
Globally, our industry spends $4.5 billion (2.8 billion) annually on developing and promoting acts. Our
report, entitled Investing in Music, outlines dozens of case studies with major artists including David
Guetta, One Direction and Bruno Mars. It shows that, although the nature of the investment is fastevolving, the backing of record companies is as vital to the careers of artists as it ever was.
Illegally downloading music continues to cause a loss of profits and jobs. Beyond that, it has changed how
music is delivered to the masses. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is made up of
large companies that oversee the recording and distribution of music in the U.S. Often called the voice of
the music industry, the RIAA reported that music sales in the states have dropped a whopping 47% since
illegal downloading service, Napster, debuted in 1999.
People are starting to believe that the future of music could be in danger. Artists and recording labels have
been forced to find new ways to distribute music to work around illegal downloads. For example, selling
singles now seems to trump a full-length album. The music industry now has to try even harder than it
previously did to expose its artists to a wider audience. One new tactic developed is to digitally licence
music to websites like Youtube, Pandora and Spotify. Because of this new culture of pirating music, touring
and promotional deals have become more important to music distributors than selling the songs.

Sources

http://socialnomics.net/2014/07/23/how-has-the-internet-and-soci
al-media-changed-the-music-industry
/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-evolution-of-music-consumptio
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/
https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/social-media-the-music-industry
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http://
www.business2community.com/entertainment/social-media-inter
net-changed-music-industry-01070744#CdjZeE7DyhAebraG.97
http://
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/9672807/The-record-label-is-dea
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