Cord cutting is more of a prediction for TV subscribers right now than the actual future. In the music industry, this happened a while ago. There was a time where many people were tied to their radios and boom boxes. Now, the music industry is dominated by MP3 players that have digital content downloaded from the internet. It's not secret that the most public industry impacted by the internet has been the music industry. In 1999, Napster was a disruptive service that seriously threatened exactly how music was exchanged. It gave users a free way to download and share music. The band Metallica famously filed suit against the music share service in 2000. The biggest threat here was obvious. People found a way to pirate music instead of paying for the album traditionally. The way artists make music now is through concerts and merchandise sales. The music online has become a way to promote the artists and the song. This video has a good rundown on how the internet changed the music industry.It has been tough for artists to combat the advent of the internet, but it has had some positive impact. The internet has paved the way for internet radio services like Pandora, iHeartRadio, Slacker, and Spotify. Most importantly, these services have provided the music industry and users big benefits. The radio services have paved the way for advertisements. In fact, Pandora won't let you skip more than a certain amount of songs because of their contracting agreements with the music services. They play advertisements on the screen and in between a certain amount of songs. It helps to generate revenue for Pandora and helps to pay for the music it streams to the user. A lot of people have abandoned their music collections in favor of the ease and accessibility of the online music.
Another huge advantage of the music industry has been the distribution channels and marketing vehicle that it has given artists. Record companies used to dictate who became famous and got the big contract (Think Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Lou Adler). Now, the internet has given artists a platform and access to music fans to level the playing field. The most famous example of the internet propelling someone to stardom is Justin Bieber when his manager, Scooter Braun, discovered this YouTube video:
One person who had an indelible impact on the music industry is someone many people may not commonly associate with the music industry, Steve Jobs. iTunes created a new way for users to access music. Users now had access to tons of music and could control what music they listened to on their own terms. They could listen and buy music a la carte or the whole album. Apple also provided a way for independent artists to produce music at a low cost. Now, your aspiring college garage band had access to a recording studio.
iTunes has also become the most profitable online retailer of music sales according to an article by Mashable.com. It's a stable model for sales and a legitimate business model for music sales. Although Apple takes a hefty portion of the revenue of the sale, artists and other major record labels rely on iTunes because of the user base. It revolutionized the industry because competing music share sites like songbee.com, mediafire.com, fileshare.com, and other torrent websites gained a lot of popularity. Legislation and the judicial system have made illegal music sharing sites ineffective, and thus, the iTunes store the premier place to get the latest music with the widest selection. In an industry where the future is unclear, iTunes has provided some stability.If this happened in the music industry so rapidly, is it so far fetched to think that TV service is the next victim of the internet? TV is a bigger beast, but it is certainly not out of the question.
Shawn
Sources: http://www.squidoo.com/deirdreassignment
http://mashable.com/2011/10/11/apple-changed-music/
No comments:
Post a Comment