Independent research on changes in production in the music industry in the last 10 years

The music industry has changed in the last 10 years in a way that no one would've expected. The way in which the artist creates their music, how it is distributed and also how it is bought by the consumer. The digital age has made music a completely non tangible concept with the almost abolishment of CDs. When creating music artist would've needed a producer, record deal, an already present fan base and a recording studio slot, with the introduction of digital technology and social networking, an artist can create a complete album using just their smartphone. They can record their music using apps such as SoundCloud. They can build a fan base with twitter, Facebook, etc. and have their record available for purchase on iTunes. It is true that musicians these days have it much easier than they did 10 years ago. Not only is the development of music easier for artists, the distribution of the songs isn't how it used to be. Nowadays with the use of social networks, letting people hear their music is much easier. Of course, from the point of view this is a major advantage but, the drawback of this much easier music creation and consumption is that very mediocre artists and singers are given the same opportunity and create very mediocre music, this dilutes the real music people want to hear and makes it harder for fans to hear the bands they want to hear.

iTunes, Napster, LimeWire and YouTube downloader are all ways of downloading music both legally and illegally. For years music has progressed and is now a key part of peoples lives. Many artists in the music industry have said that the main reason they make music, is to make people aware of their art, and that the money is just an exciting extra. I agree with this and I believe that although downloading free music is illegal, the music industry would not be able to survive without it. When people download a song either legitimately or illegally they are going to share this music. This creates a larger fan base and greater recognition for the artist, therefore increasing numbers of people that would go out and buy a ticket to their concert. Personally I buy music from both the internet and high street stores, but it seems impractical that to have a keen interest in music it could prove very costly. It is a naive way of thinking to believe that someone has never illegally downloaded a song. I think that our generation, in the 21st century, are very fortunate. There are so many ways to get hold of music through TV, radio, youtube videos, iTunes and the increasingly outdated high street store. We have the capability to diverge into different genres and styles of music and to widen our understanding of other countries' cultures, beliefs and other peoples ways of thinking. In comparison to the 20th century, this century that has lasted only twelve years has progressed in a way like never before. As well as technology, music has matured and conformed to deal with the different way we live today.

This sudden change in creating and consuming music has come in stages, the first was people using and listening to CDs. These were popular as companies started to introduce portable CD players and portable Hi-Fis, the drawback of these was that, to change what they are listening to they would need to take the CD with them and replace the one that was in the device. Once computers became very popular and began to be portable people started to rip the music from their CDs onto their computers. This created the mp3 age, these mp3 files began to be available for download on the internet. Mp3 players were introduced to the market, these proved very popular, instead of people bringing their CDs with them they just brought their mp3 players which had all of the music on their CDs and more. As the years went on and technology developed mp3 players and phone began to become independent from the computer and had the capability to download their own music by connecting to the internet themselves.