The internet changes everything it touches. In these times, that means absolutely everything. Interested parties can find websites and blogs dedicated to subjects as diverse as world politics and as obscure as horticulture. I have little interest in horticulture; however, I have followed with marked interest the changes the internet has made in the music industry.
Since the appearance of Napster and subsequent sites like Kazaa and Limewire, record labels have struggled to adapt. For years they tried cracking down on the downloaders worldwide. A twelve-year-old girl made headlines when a record company sued her for thousands of dollars for downloading songs. Then iTunes made downloading legal. In some ways it helped, because at least the companies could make some money off of the downloading. However, it didn’t solve one big change that the internet brought upon the companies.
That change was the manner in which consumers bought music. In the early ‘90s, if a person heard a song on the radio that he just had to have, he went out and bought the entire CD. If he was lucky, he might have been able to buy the single. Today, however, if a person hears a song he likes, he just downloads it for a dollar or less, and often never even thinks about the other songs. This is especially true in the cases of one hit wonders like Jet, and songs like “Low” by Flo-rida. The songs go off the charts and people are downloading them like crazy, but the rest of the album goes virtually unnoticed except by die-hard fans.
Why would someone virtually unconnected with the music industry want to blog about the problems it is having?
Like most teenagers growing up in the Los Angeles area, I fancied myself a sort of music connoisseur amongst the sheep of my generation. I listened to the Mars Volta, not Blink 182. I saw bands in coffee shops and garages, not the Gibson Amphitheatre. I was so proud of my knowledge of superior music of which the masses knew nothing. My bubble burst when I discovered that most of the “indie” bands I paid tribute to were in fact Billboard Top 100 hits, often reaching as high as gold and platinum. I finally conceded that I was just another member of the flock.
Despite this shortcoming, I’ve always wanted to be a part of the music industry. I wanted to be an A&R rep so I could spend all my time at concerts, looking for great new bands. But with record companies so afraid of losing even more money, the A&R reps aren’t really allowed to sign bands that aren’t generic and sure to bring in lots of preteen fans. Thus another affect of the internet on the music industry has been the thwarting of my childhood aspirations.
The survival of the music industry ultimately depends on the innovativeness of the music industry. Maybe the record labels will think of a way to utilize the internet to their benefit. Right now they are always one (or two or three hundred) steps behind it. I’m excited to embark on the journey of researching the industry’s attempts at both fighting against and merging with the world wide web. I hope you will join me and give me any feedback you feel compelled to give me (whether or not it really is necessary).
Signing off for now,
Vengeur
