Music Industry

The consumption of music in recent times, particularly in the 21^st century has changed and advanced more than ever before. With these changes have come many benefits for people, artists and their companies but also many disadvantages too. With legal boundaries and limits on the consumption of music affecting the entire industry, other factors affect the music industry because fans of music can choose to own their favourite artists’ music in many different ways.

With the global move from physically buying and owning a copy of your favourite artist’s music which can still be done, to downloading and having a copy on your iPod, iTunes or PC, many people are willing to pay more than they would for the physical copy simply because it will be theirs to listen to almost instantaneously. This benefits both those music fans willing to legally pay and download the music because it’s theirs so quickly but it also benefits the artists and their record labels because it means they’re earning the money they should be for spending the time making the music they hope fans will listen to. This more common way of downloading music also benefits the artists because online music purchasing makes it easier for fans to share music whether it’s on social networks like Facebook or Twitter or on online networks devoted solely to music like Spotify or YouTube which can also let fans get to know their favourite musicians a little more.

On the other end of the spectrum in terms of sharing music, the ability to go online and get your music has made it a lot easier for illegal streaming and downloading of music. This has a massive benefit for those who love music but prefer to take the risk and get it for free. In recent years this has been a focus of governments and record labels, making sure music isn’t leaked and trying to close down file sharing sites that make it easy for people to download music illegally. Jail sentences have decreased the number of people that take the risk of illegally downloading their music. This was a huge advantage lost when music was only physical – it was harder to steal the music from a shop than it is on the internet. Although this means artists lose money, many artists have said that they don’t mind as long as people are enjoying their music. However, this is usually the artists that don’t need any more money than they already have from their music. This is the reason that motivates me and millions of others to consider illegally downloading music, i.e. the artist doesn’t need any more money. However, this can have a huge negative effect on smaller artists because those who have already “made it” in the music industry are making it harder for those only starting out by tacitly encouraging illegal downloads of their music.

I think the way music is consumed will continue to change with almost all purchases/illegal downloads happening online already. Merchandise and concert tickets are mostly bought online now also, this has put pressure on music shops that would’ve traditionally sold physical copies of music to customers because there is not as big a market for physical music as there used to be.