Does The Internet Affect The Music Industry?

The rise of the internet has caused a great shift from the traditional way music was first obtained and hear. From CD records to music streaming, the internet has provided consumers with new and fast ways to listen to music. Social media and other media outlets have changed the way music is distributed and marketed. People now have more options as to how they would like to get their music. Digital downloading, piracy, buying physical copies, and streamings are some ways to obtain music. The way people get music can influence the music industry tremendously. Piracy can create the greatest loss in profit for the industry as it is not an exchange of currency for the product during that process. Digital purchasing of music gives the consumer more

New music was first discovered by word of mouth, radio plays, and other traditional means. Music can be quickly shared via Facebook, Twitter, and other digital media formats, thus making prompting and disturbing music simpler and faster. However, this altered gaining music through traditional formats such as CDs and physical record sales. In 2016, there was about a 7 percent decrease in reverence for physical sales (IFPI, 2017). The start of this shift into a digital age for music can be traced back to services like Napster and LimeWire. Services like these made music downloadable and people could now share the actual song opposed to just recommending other to listen to it later (MIS Quarterly, 2014). This marked a huge strike in music piracy. People can now pick and choose which songs they want for free opposed to buying the whole record just to listen to those few songs. This has greatly impacted music companies, and in turn, affects the artist. To combat that, labels began to use lawsuits against these illegal downloads. However, this was short-lived as the lawsuit became expensive and the labels suffered criticism from the public because of these legal suits (Tyler, 2014). Since, music companies have kept the same business model to demand more revenue and royalties, leading to more independent artists. According to the RIAA, the industry loses about 13 billion in output (in the United States) from music

Instead of ripping music straight from sites like YouTube, consumers can purchase music, from services such as iTunes. Consumers have the option to legally buy which songs they want or the whole album if they choose to. These cheaper alternatives help with aiding in the battle against internet piracy. The rise in music streams has also helped to discourage and deter fans from illegal downloading and conversion. Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and other streaming services offer users songs whenever an internet connection is available. People can choose to use these services for free via an ad-based service, or get more out of the service through a paid subscription. Getting songs through these services do not add them to people’s music libraries. The music from these streams are not permanent and are not retained. Though not retained, based on the type of streaming service the customer has, songs can be saved to personal stations and playlist, as well as replayed whenever desired (Tyler, 2014). Streaming has gained a steady increase in popularity and preference for music lovers. As of the end of 2016, there were around 112 million users who have paid for premium streaming memberships. Combined with users who paid for their streaming, there was a combined total of 212 million users for both premium members and ad-based members. This accounted for a 60.4 percent increase in streaming revenues for the end of 2016