Music’s Challenges in a Digitized Age
It’s a safe bet to assume most of us with an interest in music have listened to it digitally in the past week. There are always the holdouts of a group, in this case: those of us still clinging to CD’s, vinyl, cassettes, or maybe even that reel to reel. But that magical ability of a mp3 file with our iPods, phones, computers, etc. It’s also safe to say that we now listen to more music now than ever thanks to the incredible convenience of the digital age. The music industry itself theoretically has an easier outlet to reach us thanks to the plethora of advertisement and social media opportunities that arise from our internet connection. So what on earth does anyone have any reason to complain about? (If you actually are asking yourself this question right now, you should take a second look at humanity, this is the one thing we excel at.) As with most things under the sun, it’s complicated, so allow me to explain.
To begin, think back to the era of vinyl and ask yourself how music was pirated, and basically you could really only physically steal it. Presently, a simple maneuver of copy and paste from my friend’s hard drive would suffice. Napster is a famous example of how it all began, and although this is a dream world for the consumer, the producer is now seeing diminishing returns. Money may not be the solution to world peace, but it does get music from one’s head to the consumer realm (and how much money all of the players of the music industry actually need is another debate). Don’t take my word on it though, here is an interesting article on both the pros and cons of music piracy. Maybe you only stream music from a platform such as Spotify? Ever wonder how that works?
Beyond piracy though, there are still more concerns. Social media is everyone’s chance to be heard. Which would be great if everyone did not all speak at once. A local artist who wanted to expose his or herself to the outside world, must deal with a basic formula: Luck+Marketing= Success; it might be slightly more complicated, but the core of anyone’s success on the internet is a clever voice, one that draws attention to itself. People are not usually looking hard for music, it often finds them (think of all the advertisements and algorithms going on within Spotify, Pandora and the like. The trick is to be able to find the fan base though the cacophony of other artists doing the same. On one hand it is easier to get out there, but it is also harder to be heard. It’s not just the music industry that has had to rethink their plan of attack either, articles like this one are the substance that show the entire economy’s adaptation to the digital phenomenon.
This small ramble is not designed to shed light on all the answers, but rather to whet your appetite and provide food for thought and an alternative perspective on something so many of us take for granted daily. There are certainly more issues than I have listed here, but still, it would be foolish to call digital music evil outright because there are so many benefits as well. It is always important however to be aware of how our habits are impacting the world around us, from international to local, and the digital music realm is no exception.
