Better watch out establishment...
Nov 28 '00 (Updated May 17 '01)
The Bottom Line The future may be changing in the music industry...
The music industry as we know it may never be the same again. Through the years, it has evolved from records, to 8-tracks, to cassettes, and finally to compact discs. But, now the industry is faced with prospect of having to alter the entire concept of music distribution. Along with the computer age has come the notion that there is any easier way to sell music. That answer is the MP3.
A MP3 is a downloadable file that contains a song or group of songs. It is something that almost any modern computer can take off of the internet and immediately play back. This allows anyone to then be able to gain access to music via the internet. Virtually any song is available on the internet now, and can be downloaded with little trouble. What this allows for is the opportunity to find and retain any music of choice for no cost.
Basically if people no longer want to pay the ever increasing prices of compact discs, they can proceed to just put the music into their hard drive. What this means is that people will end up buying less music from retail stores, and become more attached to MP3's. Stores, musicians, and all the middle-men involved in the industry are starting to lose money because of this new phenomenon. To put it into perspective 846 million new CD's were sold last year. That seems like a huge amount, but it could have been even larger. The reason for that is that according to "Wired" magazine, 17 million MP3 files are downloaded from the net each day. That would come out to about 6 billion files. That is a hefty chunk of computer bytes that the music industry is making no money off of.
As more and more people begin to realize the ultimate convenience in merely downloading straight into their own homes, music stores will become obsolete. This is the way of the future, and nobody can stand in the way of technological progress. What the music industry must now realize is that they should be taking this as a warning rather than as a nuisance.
Currently the industry is pretending that MP3's don't exist. That if they pay no attention to it, that it will go away. There are even oral agreements not to sell out to the MP3 method among the industry. But, this is like me enrolling for a class and then pretending I won't fail if I skip it. It just doesn't hold water.
Something that is adding this technological innovation is that the artists themselves don't want to be left out in the cold. So, because of this they are starting to go out on their own and sign pacts with internet sources that can distribute their music. Artists that are taking this road include Tom Petty, The Artist formerly known as Prince, Alanis Morrisette, and U2. With headliners like these jumping onto the new train, it is sure to cause a wave of people to turn to the internet. I mean after all, if you want to hear your favorite artist, you go where the music is.
MP3's are here to stay, and will probably be innovated themselves. I welcome this new age of technology that will allow me to be even more lazy. Isn't that the American Dream anyways?
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