Technology has changed the the price levels of the music industry. According to the graph recode.net “at the 1999 peak of the recorded music market, 40 billion of recorded music was sold.” (Pakman ¶ 3) This was achieved through multiple sold copies of CDs and the rise of music videos. This peak of the music soon declined because of the rapid changes in technology. Music services such as Pandora, Youtube, and ITunes have increased the music supply making it more convenient for everyone around the world to enjoy music. This convenience inevitably led to the decline of the price in music to “8 billion dollars”(Pakman, See Graph). Also “a professional album is no cheap thing to make and most record labels are struggling to re-coup what they spend on creating a record. To top this the people who do buy music buy less albums people are more likely to download one single song they like rather than risking their hard earned money buying an album they might not enjoy.” (Frederick ¶ 3) However the music industry can also benefit from the advancements of technology. The media helps promote rising stars and stimulates competition between creating a variety of choices of different of music. As technology advances so do the forms of media specifically in the music industry. Forms such as Youtube, MTV, Soundcloud, and many more services stimulate competition between artists which then makes the artists create better music giving the economy more variety and essentially increasing the demand in consumption of music. Popular artists such as Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga wouldn’t be as successful without advertisers exposing them to the media. Overall, technology plays a major part in the music industry today it has decreased the price levels making it easier for people to purchase the music and especially increased the popularity of artists and their albums.
Music Piracy for a long time has crippled the economical success of the music industry. “Global music piracy robs the United States of $12.5 billion in economic output and more than 71,000 jobs annually...Sound recordings -- and other content considered to be intellectual property -- are the most important growth drivers in the U.S. economy, accounting for almost 40% of economic growth and nearly 60% of growth in U.S. exports” (K.C. Jones ¶ 1) Not only the artist themselves suffer from this dilemma but many companies that produce, advertise, and sell the music are extremely affected as well. This problem has arise due to the advancements in technology. “Mp3 technology has enabled mass theft and piracy of music in a way that has never been possible in any other point of history.” (Frederick ¶ 3) According to the statistics the United States of America is the number one nation that illegally downloads music right behind them is United Kingdom and so on. (Richter. See graph at the end) The music industry is solely dependent on copyrights. Sadly those protections aren’t enforced as necessary as it needs to be due to the fact that many people and websites all around the world steal music and share it to the world public for no cost in return.
Genres also have a connection to the economic eminence of the music industry. From the beginning everyone from across the world has enjoyed concerts and other performances of music. It started with classical music. For a long period classical music has dominated the industry. From famous symphonies such as Dvorak’s New World Symphony to Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto people pay to see it showed. Unfortunately time changes and music evolves. Even though classical music is still being performed and recorded its not a very significant part of the music industry anymore which is why its hard getting a job when in the music industry when you can only play an instrument. Moving forward in time we have pop and rap music. Pop and rap music are the driving genres of the music industry. According to ITunes the top 10 songs are primarily pop and rap. Artist like Ariana Grande, Beyonce, and Justin Bieber are currently the most successful artists of today and they are coincidentally pop and or rap artists. The concerts they perform at bring in millions increasing the demand of their albums and which then increases supply ending with an overall increase in GDP. Michael Jackson, even though he’s dead, is the king of pop his songs are still played and when he did tour he would make millions because his reputation was and still is forever praised. Therefore even when these artist die physically or fame wise this genre will never die itself it has been popular for many decades now and the music industry is extremely dependent upon its continued success.
The music industry will forever be bittersweet factor to the growth of the economy. When it is shining and successful it definitely shows but when its in a downfall it can be pretty harmful to the economy as well. But it will never fail because everyone loves music it will always and forever be a part everyone life whether it’s through headphones or at a live concert.
Works Cited:
Billboard. "Music: Top 100 Songs | Billboard Hot 100 Chart." Billboard. Billboard, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. Its updates ever so often so information changes with the billboard status
Dargent, Loup. "The Beauty of Music: Top 5 Most Popular Music Genres." LoupDargent.info. Themexpose, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
Frederick, Damian. "How Has Technology Affected The Music Industry?" Taliferro Music. Taliferro Music, 28 May 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
Houghton, Bruce. "Hypebot." 'hypebot' Type Pad, 27 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
"ITunes Charts." Apple. Apple Inc., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016. Changes charts over time
Jones, K. C. "Music Piracy Costs U.S. Economy $12.5 Billion, Report Reveals - InformationWeek." InformationWeek. UBM, 22 Aug. 2007. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
Pakman, David. "The Price of Music." Recode. Vox Media, Inc., 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.Richter, Felix. "Infographic: United States Top Music Piracy Ranking." Statista Infographics. Statista Inc., 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
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