Music Labels ditching CD's

Theinsider.com recently published an article saying record labels will stop selling CD's by 2012. This is mainly because of declining CD sales and the shift to digital outlets. Record labels would prefer to sell their music through intermediary's such as itunes and amazon and any other legal mp3 distributing websites.

Personally, this change to digitization makes the most sense economically, and shows that record labels have finally endorsed this new format of selling music rather than fighting online outlets. What do you think about the record labels ditching CD's?

http://www.theinsider.com/music/45746_Music_Industry_To_Abandon_CDs_in_2012/

iTunes U

Currently iTunes has expanded into iTunes U. iTunes U brings the power of the iTunes store to education with the intentions of making it simple to distribute information to students and faculty. iTunes U consists of everything from lectures, language lessons, films, labs, audio books and video. Approximately 800+ universities and colleges have active iTunes U sites (Yale, MIT, Oxford, UC Berkeley)(Apple Inc., 2011).

In my opinion, I believe that this is an interesting idea that iTunes has established. My first instinct would be that the company would branch into the education sector, and would stick to their primary focus which is media and technology. However iTunes has proven to be an application that has connected countless amounts of different people and networks together. A large part of education is brining different people and networks together so when you think of it this way the two go hand in hand quite nicely.

Court Shuts Down LimeWire

I found this article interesting in the Rolling Stone because it really related to the topics that we discuss in class. In 2006, thirteen record companies sued Lime Wire for hosting as many as 11,000 of their copyrighted sound recordings. Last year, the labels scored their first major win in the case when the judge agreed that Lime Wire indirectly infringed on their copyrights by inducing users to download pirated content. The network was ultimately shut down on October 26, 2010.

A quote that drew my attention was from the Lime Wire CEO, George Searle, “Naturally, we’re disappointed with this turn of events. We are extremely proud of our pioneering history and have, for years, worked hard to bridge the gap between technology and content rights holders. However, at this time, we have no option but to cease further distribution and support of our software. It’s a sad occasion for our team, and for you – the hundreds of millions of people who have used Lime Wire to discover new things.” This just shows how these various peer-to-peer networks have really pioneered a new way of accessing information.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/court-shuts-down-limewire-20101027

Hey everyone.

I have found another article which holds excellent information about our topic. This one deals with the concept of music developing into a sort of utility, comparable to water or electricity. The authors believe that due to progressive changes in the music industry, productions of music will become a service, distributed for a fee. In reality this system is not dissimilar to to current models. The differences become apparent in the notion of universal availability, and a pre-set fee for connectivity without bandwidth limit.

The article touches on allot of really cool points, apart from their service based conclusion. It mainly focuses on prospective events and ramifications in the future of the music industry. I was very impressed with this piece; it mirrors allot of my ideas for our project.

http://law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/jhtl/book_reviews/2006_2007/Ron_Giambalvo_Book_Review.pdf

Steve Jobs impact on the music industry

The Recent passing of Steve Jobs really got me thinking about his influence on Apple and the success of itunes. Apple products in general have changed my life and i'm sure they've changed yours. I can't imagine listening the music without my ipod. I remember When the Ipod first came out and it was such a novelty, now everyone has one.

Apple, and itunes in particular changed the revenue models for record companies. It provided an online distribution platform for individuals to buy songs to listen to rather than using illegal file sharing websites such as napster, Kazaa and Limewire. Record companies were forced to use itunes, selling mp3's for $0.99 each. You could even say that itunes saved the record industry because with the decline of CD sales and the increase in illegal files haring websites, Apple was able to present something that gave record companies a way to still gain profit.

Therapeutic Benefits

There are many therapeutic benefits to music, that we may not have truly realized. As claimed by the American Music Therapy Association, “ music is curative and restorative for a wide variety of conditions, even as aid to help with physical rehabilitation and assisting those with disabilities”. Music therapy can help induce emotional pain, lower anxiety, lift spirits and help individuals sleep better. According to the American Cancer Society, music can help relieve aches, symptoms, while augmenting a patient’s joy and overall well being. With music widely recognized today as a medical tool, colleges throughout North America are now offering bachelor degrees in the field, as many people are interested in pursuing careers in music thanatology. While there is a significant portion of people who do not go as far studying music as a career in terms of pratical terms, there are definitely techniques that you don’t need a degree for. Enjoying music, discussing lyrics, writing music, playing and cherishing all contribute to therapeutic benefits and overall well being. (Sherman, 2007)

A cool article I found on our subject. It is a little dated for my purposes, the future, but is an excellent piece on information.

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/13000/

U.S Supreme Court rules down on music downloading case.

This is a follow up to Alex's blog regarding the future of profitability in the music industry. The U.S supreme court recently rejected a case involving internet music downloading. ASCAP (American society of composers, artists and publishers) which represents 390,000 individuals, appealed to the US supreme court to restrict downloading by saying that downloading the works of their clients is a violation of their performances. In essence, it tried to connect downloading music to an actual performance. The court ruled that recorded music that has been downloaded does not constitute an actual performance.

The music industry has been forced to come up with new ways to be profitable ever since Napster was created. An example of this includes Vevo - a video sharing website - which is a partnership between Sony, Universal and EMI record labels. Many of us have seen Vevo on youtube.

In closing, the music industry, and in particular Record labels, have been forced to come up with new ways to gain future profit. How do you see the music industry growing in the future?

http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/court+rejects+Internet+music+download+case/5494147/story.html

The Future of Profitability

In this day and age there are many emerging threats to the contemporary structure of profitability within the music production industry. Most of these threats exist in the form of pirated music, and free file sharing. Historically record labels had made the majority of their profits from record sales. Currently record sales are dropping due to consumer's desire for individual tracks, instead of the more drawn out collection found on albums. In reaction to this trend, some upstart companies have capitalized upon selling individual tracks; meeting the unique demands. Companies such as Apple and upstarts like Beatport recognized the imminent shift in consumer demand. It can be seen that the switch was heralded, and continues to be witnessed, through advancements in communications technology.

The important element of this new conceptualization for music production is, that a change was necessary. Instead of focusing on the technology of holding information; as has been prominent in the vinyl records, the cassette tape and the CD-ROM, companies are now concentrating on the security and licencing involved with directly sharing content. It is my opinion that further advancements in both communications technology, as well as the capabilities of computerized mass data storage, will continue to usher in hurtles for the production industry to address. It is open to discussion: which technologies will expand, and the significance of those developments.

Music Throughout our Lives:

For as long as humans have been on planet earth, music as always been a part of our lives whether we may realize it or not. Music is embedded in our culture, education, lifestyle, collective memory and just in our everyday lives. This is something that will most likely stay with us throughout our lives. Since we have been young there are some songs that have stayed with us such as singing happy birthday, holiday songs or even standing up and listening to Oh Canada every morning. We learn many different songs throughout elementary school, for education purposes or for our enjoyment. As we get older and move throughout our lives, music can also play more a sentimental role, if individuals decide to get married, a special wedding song will be picked, or songs can be used to honour people presently with us or not. A piece of music heard once might be forever joined to a personal sense of a place or powerful sense of memories. Whether we realize it or not music will always be apart of our lives directly or indirectly.