Music Industry: The Impact of Technology

Introduction

Technology plays a crucial role in elevating the competitiveness of businesses across all sectors. Both mainstream and underground music has always been an important cultural force in the modern world. However, with the advent of new technology and the prominence of digital media, the conditions under which musicians operate have undergone a radical transformation. Costs are reduced, and the ability to reach a global audience is improved, which are important factors in the music industry.¹ Consumers now have many options for their chosen music thanks to technological platforms like iTunes. Music is more accessible and inexpensive for consumers. While technology has many positive impacts on the music industry, it poses certain obstacles. In recent years, technology has transformed the music industry. Music has had the chance to communicate with a global audience and fans; thus, this essay will look at how digital media is changing the music industry in production and marketing segments.

Technology has Made it Easy for Industry Participants to Work Together

Modern communication methods allow people to share and receive musical works directly (record stores). As a result, the advent of MP3 technology allowed musicians to distribute their songs to a sizable audience more cheaply. With the advent of MP3, even the need for conventional record labels was rendered obsolete. There was a decrease in production costs as a result of this. Regarding MP3 technology, “audio may be available for lengthy durations as there would be no labor, storage, production, or cataloging expenditures.” The goal of the artists, managers, labels, publishers, advertisers, promoters, agencies, corporations, etc., is the same, even if they are not always in sync.² Industry advancements over the years can be attributed to cooperative efforts. However, each musician’s career is different, and each country has its laws and economic customs. Indeed, the music industry is simultaneously global and highly local. That makes it challenging, especially for a beginner, to gain a clear, coherent picture of the sector.

The music business was organized similarly to a motorway but with a few heavily fortified checkpoints. Labels dominated the industry then and were responsible for discovering new talent first. Not only did recording businesses supply the necessary infrastructure, but they also gave invaluable access to the press. Artists relied heavily on radio and television as the principal means of promotion, as they provided access to massive audiences.³ If a song gets played frequently on a major radio station, it could catapult the musician to instant fame and fortune. However, the system mainly benefited a small group of artists, leaving the vast majority behind.

Although the digital sector has developed, the importance of the real world remains unchanged. As the industry adapts to the convergence of the online and offline realms and direct relationships between artists and fans, artists are increasingly streaming live shows on their “social media handles” and announcing albums with a single tweet. Once the exclusive purview of record companies, marketing methods are now fair game for anyone. Publishing houses, executives, and agencies have invested heavily in digital marketing, and as a result, the industry is overflowing with people pursuing jobs in the digital realm.

Contemporary Shifts Impact of Technology in Music Business

The music industry has never seen so many promotional channels, yet more music is available. While it is great that artists now have greater control over their promotion, the fact remains that over 20,000 new songs are created every day, making it difficult for even the most well-known to be heard. The music industry is complex and highly fragmented.⁴ Therefore, experts in the field had to develop the ability to adapt quickly and rely heavily on data to succeed. Individuals and companies involved in music creation (artists, composers, and producers), customer interaction (streaming services, venues, and performance rights platforms like radio), and business are all interconnected in the music industry. The umbrella phrase “music industry” is frequently used to denote the entire sector. What looks like a unified industry is often made up of many smaller sectors that may or may not intersect with one another.

Social media encompasses all Web 2.0 applications facilitating two-way communication between individuals, groups, or organizations. Marketing content audiences may or may not be able to make changes or even develop and produce marketing content before transferring it to other people, organizations, or groups of persons through the online environment in which the interaction takes place. Because social media users spread promotional content, musicians can now potentially reach an infinite number of individuals with their work. This means musicians can make a substantial profit from selling a small number of Compact Discs.

Distribution is an aspect of the recording process in a technical sense. Distributors’ primary responsibility is to get the product into stores, maintain a steady revenue stream for the artists, and record labels they represent. Due to the rise of streaming, DSPs now serve as a one-stop shop for users interested in listening to, selling, and discovering new music.⁵ Sites like Spotify are crucial not only as a means of financial support for musicians but also as a means of publicizing their work. The marketing effect of streaming programs and discovering algorithms is arguably more essential to 90% of the musicians out there than the profit they get from the streaming services.

The music business is developing at a breakneck pace. New means of expression emerge every year, changing how audiences engage with artists and spawning instantaneous stars. Concurrently, technological advancements have made creative resources more widely available to people who might not have had access to them before. It is not easy to foresee the future of the music industry in light of its rapid transformation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) development will simplify a wide range of labor-intensive, manual jobs in the music production and marketing industries, reducing the need for mediators and expanding participation in these disciplines.⁶ Because of developments in machine learning approaches like A.I.-mediated songwriting and voice synthesis, millions of musicians worldwide will have broader access to high-quality and inexpensive music production resources.

AI can help advertisers cater their messages to their target audiences’ interests and preferences. Branded content seamlessly integrates into our consumption patterns as algorithms exploit consumer data to offer adaptive ad content connected to the exact moment, location, and user. Artists who can better tailor their messaging to the needs of specific demographics at specific times will get a greater return on investment (ROI) and increased income.⁷ The democratization fuelling the current music-streaming craze will have a hand in shaping regional economies. How music is consumed in these countries will likely differ from the norm. Because of the influx of international customers into the streaming market, regional music is getting more attention.

The current world is entering a post-album era, and the album’s popularity will continue to wane. Common knowledge is that the album medium has been steadily declining over the past many years due to the rise of streaming services. There is now nobody there to announce the end of an album.⁸ Even among the younger generations, record listening is still rather popular. However, recommendation systems and playlists on various streaming platforms are becoming increasingly important for music consumers to learn about new artists and songs. In the future, songs will focus on music production and promotion, while albums will take on a supporting role.

Due to the saturation of the attention economy, music will have more and more rivals in the future. Ten years ago, numerous media outlets fought over viewers’ free time by offering compelling original material.⁹ Growth for services like Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, and others like them can be attributed to their success in monopolizing their users’ spare time and going unnoticed. Those were the times when people looked out the window, as they did so routinely throughout their commutes and other daily activities. But the attention economy will peak in 2022, so people will not have much free time.

The post-peak economic approach presents a significant challenge for the music industry and highlights the need for increased collaboration within and across genres and platforms. The influence once held by record labels has shifted back to the artists thanks to the rise of social networking and music streaming platforms like Spotify and Pandora.¹⁰ As a result, music managers will take on greater responsibility for directing their clients’ careers. Managers’ roles as promoters and developmental artists (D.A. s) will expand in the new music industry.

Economic and Business Concepts of Technology in the Music Industry

Complex interactions between shifting social norms and the business tactics of capitalist companies, particularly in the consumer electronics industry, caused 20th-century shifts in music consumption. Technology has been blamed for the demise of the music industry, yet it has also contributed to the growth of the industry in many ways. Due to technological advancements, musicians no longer need to focus solely on their home market to promote and sell their work. Now more than ever, albums may be promoted and sold through legitimate internet music retailers like iTunes.

Internet promotion can raise a musician’s earnings in a market free from infringement. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook facilitate communication between artists and their audiences, allowing the former to learn from the latter about their respective strengths and areas for development.¹¹ As the iTunes music shop works hard to keep music costs low to prevent people from buying illicit versions from illegitimate sources, the availability of illegal versions of music over the Internet has decreased. So, making legal sites online might not be a long-term answer to the issue at hand. However, the MP3 file format was created in 1987 and became widely used in the 1990s, dealing severe damage to the music industry. With this cutting-edge technology, Internet users can now listen to their preferred tunes regardless of location.¹² Also, with the advent of this new technology, people worldwide have a place to go to get their hands on their favorite tunes for absolutely no cost and store them on their gadgets. It would also facilitate international file sharing. P2P file-sharing services could emerge thanks to this innovation.

In the past decade, sales of newly created music have declined. Those losses can be traced back to the proliferation of unauthorized music downloads made possible by technological advances. The United States is not the only region witnessing a decline in the sale of newly created music. Original music sales fell by 20% between 1999 and 2003, per a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.¹³ Several legal online music stores, including Apple’s iTunes, have sprung up in response to the proliferation of illegal music downloads, hoping to boost sales and the quality of the music business overall.

The phonograph invention has had a tremendous impact on the music industry. It has had several effects, one of which is on song duration that might not be immediately apparent. The length of the time’s most popular song exceeds that of contemporary pop tunes. The average length of the most well-known musical works is 45 minutes. Three-minute songs are sometimes regarded as laughably short. Thus, phonograph technology helps make such music interesting and long.

In the early days of the phonograph, when songs had to be condensed to fit on a single disc, they tended to be shorter. As a result, record labels mandated that musicians create songs that were no more than five minutes each to streamline operations. Since this was the most popular style of music then, it’s safe to infer that its widespread dissemination had a profound impact on the way musicians wrote new songs, setting a pattern that continues to this day in the shape of the pop song. The limitations of the phonograph’s recording were crucial, but they aren’t the only reason songs under five minutes long have become popular.

There has been a rise in the number of home-based musicians thanks to digital distribution. Unsigned artists can now take advantage of distribution opportunities provided by online platforms such as Mixcloud and Beatport Sound.¹⁴ Cloud is for musicians who wish to distribute their music without charging, whereas Beat port is for artists who want to sell their tracks online (Snyder). New artists have found success with the help of free promotion made possible through web services like beat port. That means more exposure for deserving musicians of the highest caliber. Online music businesses like this might not exist if illegal music sharing had never occurred.

Conclusion

Technological advancements have impacted every facet of modern life, and the entertainment business is no different. Introducing personal computers and the internet has necessitated changes in the music industry. The positive effects of technology on the music industry greatly outweigh any drawbacks. Since technological advancements in the music industry are here to stay, all parties involved should welcome them with open arms and be as adaptable as possible.

The music business, however, has begun an offensive against piracy and unlawful copying by implementing several measures designed to stamp out the problem entirely. The sector has taken several businesses to court on multiple occasions, seeking injunctions against them. Napster was successfully shut down, a file-sharing program that encouraged P2P networks and constituted a considerable threat to the music industry.¹⁵ But many people think piracy must only be halted on ethical grounds, not by legal means.

Even though the internet’s impact on the music industry has been profound in its brief 20 years, its effects are just beginning to be seen. Artists will be able to make instant, high-quality, collaborative, professional music. This will usher in an era of widespread democratization and more inter-artist collaboration. Millions more individuals will have access to any music they want thanks to streaming’s ability to expand into new markets. Emerging markets, not the established ones currently dominating the sector, will drive the trend toward greater democracy. Artists will find new fans all across the world and right here at home.¹⁶ The way music is used and reimagined will become increasingly innovative and imaginative. The walls between different forms of media will eventually come down. These activities are all well underway at this point. By recognizing the changes occurring now, you can see the future.

The importance of foreseeing how these shifts will affect music’s production, distribution, and reception cannot be overstated. In this setting, the music industry will evolve in the years to come, and an awareness of these seismic upheavals is crucial to success in a field as competitive as the music industry. More significant, though, is connecting these structural shifts to the careers of the artists who collaborate on a local level. Soundcards are useful in situations like this one. This platform compiles information on an artist’s career from dozens of sources, including social media, streaming services, and radio play, to get a full picture of any endeavor.

With technological advancement, listeners now have more access to various musical styles—the music business benefits in other ways as well from technological advances. Making music no longer necessitates the high costs of manufacturing, cataloging, and advertising. Similarly, musicians can rapidly expand their global fan bases. However, digital advancements have facilitated piracy and other forms of copyright violations. Although it stands to reason that the music industry’s bottom line would improve due to wider distribution—especially once manufacturing and cataloging costs were eliminated—the advent of technology like iTunes has reduced earnings.

Bibliography

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Baym, Nancy, Lana Swartz, and Andrea Alarcon. “Sonic Publics| Convening Technologies: Blockchain and the Music Industry.” International Journal of Communication 13 (2019): 20.

Chalmers, Dominic, Russell Matthews, and Amy Hyslop. “Blockchain as an External Enabler Of New Venture Ideas: Digital Entrepreneurs and the Disintermediation of the Global Music Industry.” Journal of Business Research 125 (2021): 577-591.

Chen, Zhen Troy. “Flying With Two Wings or Coming of Age Of Copyrightisation? A Historical and Socio-Legal Analysis of Copyright and Business Model Developments In the Chinese Music Industry.” Global Media and China 6, no. 2 (2021): 191-206.

Dolata, Ulrich. The Digital Transformation of the Music Industry. The Second Decade: From Download to Streaming. (No. 2020-04. SOI) Discussion Paper, 2020.

Gross, Sally Anne. “Women Working in the Music Business: An Alumni Study.” In Music as Labour, pp. 159-174. Routledge, 2022.

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Footnotes

1. Arcos, Luis Claudio. “The Blockchain Technology on the Music Industry.” Brazilian Journal of Operations & Production Management 15, no. 3 (2018): 441.
2. Chalmers, Dominic, Russell Matthews, and Amy Hyslop. ” Blockchain as an External Enabler of New Venture Ideas: Digital Entrepreneurs and the Disintermediation of the Global Music Industry.” Journal of Business Research 125 (2021): 587.
3. Baym, Nancy, Lana Swartz, and Andrea Alarcon. “Sonic Publics. Convening Technologies: Blockchain and the Music Industry.” International Journal of Communication 13 (2019): 20.
4. Negus, Keith. “From Creator to Data: The Post-Record Music Industry and the Digital Conglomerates.” Media, Culture & Society 41, no. 3 (2019): 378.
5. Chen, Zhen Troy. “Flying With Two Wings or Coming of Age Of Copyrightisation? A Historical and Socio-Legal Analysis of Copyright and Business Model Developments In the Chinese Music Industry.” Global Media and China 6, no. 2 (2021): 201.
6. Nordgård, Daniel. The Music Business and Digital Impacts: Innovations and Disruptions in the Music Industries. Springer Nature Switzerland, 2018.
7. Mizzau, Lorenzo. ” Digital Music (R) Evolution: Disruption Through Digital Transformation in the Music Industry.” In Digital Transformation in the Cultural and Creative Industries, pp. 134. Routledge, 2020.
8. Simon, Jean Paul. “New players in the music industry: lifeboats or killer whales? The role of streaming platforms.” Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance (2019).
9. Sefa, Flavio. “Creative Destruction and The Music Industry: A Thorough approach on new technologies and their impact on the sustainability of the music market.” Master’s thesis, University of Agder, 2020.
10. Krueger, Alan B. Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life. Currency. Cambridge, 2019.
11. Strong, Catherine, and Sarah Raine, eds. Towards Gender Equality in the Music Industry: Education, Practice and Strategies for Change. New York Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2019.
12. He, Yuling. The Digital Age for Marketing Impact on China Music Industry and Chinese Consumer Motivations. Ph.D. dissertation, 2020. Wenzhou Kean University
13. Wikström, Patrik. The Music Industry: Music in the Cloud. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 2020.
14. Prey, Robert. “Locating Power in Platformization: Music Streaming Playlists and Curatorial Power.” Social Media+ Society 6, no. 2 (2020): 2056305120933291.
15. Gross, Sally Anne. “Women Working in the Music Business: An Alumni Study.” In Music as Labour, pp. 168. Routledge, 2022.
16. Dolata, Ulrich. The Digital Transformation of the Music Industry. The Second Decade: From Download to Streaming. No. 2020-04. SOI Discussion Paper, 2020.