Did the Internet kill the music business?

In this article, the author questions whether the internet has really "destroyed the music business" or not. He brings light to the fact that successful music artists who became popular in the past, such as Stevie Nicks or Prince, would obviously make this argument because it used to be an exclusive club at the top, and now there is room for more people to shine. The internet has not killed the music business, it has created a new one, where exceedingly talented artists who might not have been noticed by massive record labels in the past, now are able to establish a name and fan base. I like the point at the end of this article where he says "Use the new technology to your advantage, because it’s not going anywhere." Most people are scared of change, yet it is inevitable, so the best way to deal with it is to accept it.

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2010/08/has-the-internet-really-destroyed-the-music-business/

iPod

There is no question that the iPod has completely changed the world of music. One of the main reasons is the convenience and the actual tangible product itself. While the Sony walkman dramatically changed how users listened to music, it was the iPod that took it to the next level and revitalized how users listen to music. With the Sony Walkman, users were able to listen to music everywhere but the users still needed to carry around cassette tapes. Comparing this with the iPod, it allows users to listen to their entire music library without the inconvenience of having to change the cassette tapes in order to listen to a new artist. As the iPod simultaneously works in conjunction with iTunes, this application syncs and organizes your songs. iTunes also significantly changed the music industry as this was a new way of storing and organizing music.

In a more creative sense, the iPod also changed how users listen to music, as Apple introduced “shuffling”. “Shuffling” allows users to randomly listen to songs that are selected from their library. This was a new concept, that brought an entirely new dimension as individuals were able to listen to songs that fate has chosen for them.

These are just two of the main ways that the iPod has dramatically changed the world of music. Below is the full article that goes into more detail. A very interesting read overall.

http://www.macworld.com/article/163179/2011/10/how_the_ipod_changed_the_world_of_music.html

7 % Increase

It is expected that global online music revenue is believed to rise by approximately 7% this year, with overall $6.3 billion dollars. As digital music services such as iTunes, Spotify, legal sounds.com continue to increase this number will only rise faster. As a pure result of this occurring, CD and record sales continue to decline and overall consumer behaviour has shifted. By 2015, it is estimated that online music spending will rise to about $7.7 billion. During this period, spending on CDs as well as other tangible music forms and products is going to fall by about $10-$15 billion dollars. “The music industry was the first media sector to feel the full impact of two major forces — the Internet and technology-empowered consumers,” Gartner analyst Mark McGuire said in a report. The convenience of legal purchasing from digital music stores is one of the major factors that is increasing the digital music industry as CD sales fall simultaneously

Occupy Wall Street and Musicians

An interesting trend recently is popular musicians in support of the occupy movement. Katy Perry, Russell Simmons and other influential artists have voiced their opinion in favor the occupy movement.

The American Music Awards after party probably brought about the most traction in terms of celebrities participating in an occupy movement. David DeGraw, an occupy Wall street organizer, invited various artists to his after party at the Villa Lounge in Hollywood to engage in discussion and promote the cause to the celebrity scene. This is probably a smart idea from an occupy perspective as the movement will grow with celebrity support.

I wonder who will be next to endorse the movement?

http://www.kovideo.net/more-support-for-occupy-wall-street-from-music-industry-news-katy-perry-4464.html

Burma music scene

Burma, officially titled as Myanmar, currently has a thriving pop music scene. You wouldn't expect this as you usually associate Burma with political oppression and civil rights issues. Because of censorship and possible legalities, artists are forced to create songs based love, happiness and family rather than taking a pro-democracy stand. It also doesn't have many copyright laws and as a result a lot of the songs are mere imitations of American and British pop hits, with Burmese lyrics and cultural influences.

Some of the hottest Burmese versions of top western songs include the following artists: Snoop Dogg, Shakira and Celine Dion.

I found the article interesting mainly of the unexpected success of the music industry. It was fascinating to see a thriving music scene in an oppressive country.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/even-under-oppressive-military-rule-myanmar-produces-thriving-pop-music-industry-2011-11-21

Google Music

Google Music was officially launched on November 26th, 2011. In my opinion it is the first real competition that itunes will face.

Some interesting facts about Google music:

- Partnership with Universal and Sony

- Efficient music management makes it easier and accessible to listen to music

- Storage space - 20 000 songs on Google servers.

- Supports many file types - MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC

- Mainly targeted to the android market.

- Prices: Free up to $1.29.

- Used with Google +

- Artists can create their own page to market the brand.

I Think this is a great new product as it increases competition with apple and allows for another legitimate music distribution site.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396598,00.asp

http://technorati.com/business/article/hot-business-news-google-the-newest/

Modernized Church

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-15811721

With the help of light shows and live music, a church in Nottingham, UK has seen a dramatic increase in attendance. Instead of a regular altar/congregation layout, the church has one main stage with concert-style seating. One way to describe the motivation behind this modern approach is that "church is about the people, not the building," as said by Debby Wright, who founded the church with her husband John Wright in 1996. I consider myself an agnostic atheist; however, if I were religious I would strongly support this idea! Do you think this is good for the Church? Is it appropriate? This is more of an open ended post, I want to see what everyone thinks.

Social Media in the Music Industry

In today’s society social media has established itself as a norm and has become apart of our everyday lives. This is no different in the music industry, as musicians and artists are using methods of social media to connect with fans, other individuals, increase exposure, generate revenue and to overall use it as a tool. Examples of uses of social media include, Twitter, personal websites, interviews, exclusive giveaways, and many more. Twitter has become a hot commodity with celebrities and it seems as though everyone now has begun “tweeting”. Twitter is one of the more common methods of social media, as the individual can use posts to update us with anything that they may desire whether it is launching an update on a song, or actually anything they chose to put. Facebook fan pages is also a popular way of using social media to increase exposure, and to overall connect fans to artists and musicians. Many musicians and artists often hold question periods that allows fans to send in questions that they want answered, this is a great and common way that connects fans to their favourite artists and allows the fans to get to know the individual on a more personal basis. No matter what the labels, corporations and record companies are doing, musicians and artists are taking it upon themselves to use social media to connect with fans, users, and overall create a new discovered relationship.

Google music store challenges Apple

This Wednesday, Google launched its digital music store, in direct competition with Apple. Apple has such a hold on the market that I think it is going to be extremely difficult for Google to come close to competition, but the future will tell all. One main difference that Google is promoting from Apple is that they are allowing sharing of purchased songs over its social network, Google Plus. The perk is that friends within this network will be able to listen to one another's songs once for free. Google also offers an appealing system to independent artists, not affiliated with record labels, who release their own music. They can pay a one-time $25 fee, which allows them to upload songs, add a bio and artwork to the store, and they are allowed to keep 70% of all sales. For more on this Google music service read this article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/11/16/google-music.html

I found this in an article about a talk given by Sean Parker, co founder of Napster. The author boiled down the conversation to what thinks were "five interesting things Parker said Yesterday". The talk was mainly about the future of the music industry, the future of web company's. Point number 3 absolutely sums up our presentation.

3. He thinks the music industry is harming itself by resisting Spotify (Parker's an investor) and other new music models.

"I've watched in the last ten years as the four, soon to be three, major record labels have failed to embrace any new models," said Parker. "They have maintained a storefront mentality, a unit sales approach. You walk into a [virtual] store and buy music as you always did, with a limited ability to sample. You can't listen to what you're friends are listing to, you have to buy it...The record business is in a slump due to the lack of distribution models that encourage more consumption. Now we have it with Spotify, with Pandora. I think that iTunes will eventually adopt licenses something like what we have at Spotify. We've presided over the largest destruction of value ever in the music industry over the last ten years. If we can get them back to where they were ten years ago we will have presided over the largest increase in value."

I agree with all of what Parker said.

As Mark commented, the music industry now only has 3 major players; really 2. If each competitor continues with old models they will end up left out in the cold while many smaller labels capitalize of new trends. They will be left in competition with merely each other and will ultimately loose due to the death of the old market.

Hype Machine

Hype Machine is a website that keeps track of what music bloggers are writing about. Everyday, countless people all over the world are writing about music and through it all, it ends up on here on this website. Hype Machine strives to create a method of empowering individuals, independent voices while coming together. The main focus of the company is to create and make the most of a cultural music discovery experience on the internet and well as to connect different networks of music lovers all over the world. This is a very unique way of being able to read and share other people’s blogs while at the same time discovering new songs, and information that you may not have otherwise come across.

http://hypem.com/#!/

Three Ways YouTube Has Changed the Music Industry:

In 2005 when Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawad Karim founded YouTube, there’s no way that the three of them could have predicted that they would change the music industry and ultimately the world. YouTube has revolutionized the entertainment and music world and as a result has brought the entire world together.

1.YouTube Has Made The World Smaller

With a single click, YouTube has given us the power to travel around the world and explore distant countries, and cultures. This not only pertains to music, but literally with everything in general. With a simple search we can see and listen to the native music of India, or learn about the culture of Brazil.

2.YouTube Helps People Get Discovered

YouTube has opened the doors for talent discovery. Prior to YouTube there has never been any easier time for talented singers, dancers and artists to achieve instant fame. Today anybody can post a video online, and as we’ve learned if the right person discovers you, then the potential to reach stardom could even happen over night. A prime example of this is Justin Bieber. When Justin Bieber’s mom uploaded some videos to YouTube so their family and friends could see, she had no idea that Justin would become the person he has become today.

3. The Convenience

With the access to the internet, anyone can go on YouTube, and from there the possibilities seem endless. YouTube offers countless musical and artistic material that can pertain to every individual. Whether it is listening to your new favourite song, watching an instructional video, learning from a dance and many more. YouTube makes it easy and convenient for users to be able to access the countless material that is displayed.

Artists switching to smaller venues

I read an article recently discussing a change in the way artists perform. Some artists are now replacing arena shows with smaller venues such as theaters and clubs. The main reasons seem to be the bad economy and music distribution changes.

some artists who are switching to smaller venues for their tours include sting and Paul Simon, Janet Jackson and Kidrock.

Personally, i love it as it allows for a close up and more engaging experience with the artists. I don't think all artists will change to a smaller format especially the big names who receive lots of money for a larger audience, but it is definitely something to look forward to to the artists who do use a smaller venue.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20111112/ENTERTAINMENT/111120311/As-music-business-changes-more-top-acts-choosing-smaller-venues

EMI sold for $4.1 billion

On November 11th, 2011 EMI was sold for $4.1 billion. The music operating division was sold to Univeral music for $1.9 billion and the publishing division was sold to a group of investors led by Sony for $2.2 billion. The importance of this sale within the music industry is that EMI was one of the four major record labels. the others being Universal, Sony and Warner. This deal reflects the trend toward consolidating the music industry to two main labels - Universal and Sony - Warner has a very small market share.

How do you see the music industry moving in future years from an ownership and control perspective?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/business/media/emi-is-sold-for-4-1-billion-consolidating-the-music-industry.html

Music is a form of expression that can’t always be defined by labels and genres

How music makes us feel is purely individual. Different situations can elicit different moods and make us relate to specific songs. One of the most gratifying aspects of music is the ability it has to connect to individuals no matter where they are. Even though the internet can unleash an abundance of information to anyone, and allows individuals to download songs, sometimes all it really takes is an instrument, a piece of paper and your thoughts to get your message across. Music can be extremely personal to individuals and can hold a lot of meaning. Music is a living entity, it reflects the way we feel, act and react.

Hi Everyone.

Recently Google released a series of information title the "Google Transparency Report". This document contains the data which Google collects about various information based concepts. The two areas currently addressed by this document are: historic information about traffic, and the reporting of national government requests to remove content, or block access of specific content, for users in a given country.

The information about national government requests is VERY interesting because it details each and every request which a government has made to prohibit content. It will tell you, what, when, and the outcome of nearly every such request.

We all know that Google records data on countless parameters related to our own personal internet and search usage, as well as the acts of nations, and general on-line trends. So far most types of this sort of information have been kept private to Google, for what is believed to be internal development. With actions like this, and Google Add Words, Google is handing the power of their data collection procedures back tot he public. They hope that the information is used for academic research , as well as the enlightenment of the common internet user.

This has nothing to do with the music industry; but I kinda bored of that stuff.

Check it out. Very Scary, but VERY cool.

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/

Alexander