FINAL

Call it a curse, call it a blessing…The Digital Age has revolutionized the music business. Suddenly, the floodgates of music have opened up from channels of non-traditional media that we never could have dreamt up.

It’s a beautiful thing to see the playing field of the music business more leveled than it ever was before. Artists are more accessible to potential audiences through the accessibility if the internet. Music, video, and artist information is finally within reach without the dependence of magazines, MTV, or an album sleeve.

It’s a thrill to discover an artist’s songs simply through a few clicks on MySpace Music. How utterly fascinating is it to carry your entire music library in your pocket? I still wonder how I ever managed to carry around my portable CD player and CD cases around school before I had an iPod.

It’s overtly convenient to purchase music through the iTunes online store, rather than a gas-guzzling trip to the local Tower (RIP) or Amoeba record store.

…but where there lies a convenience in accessibility, leads to a grappling of how an entire industry will change along with this new shift. Although the New Music Experience is more comfortable for consumers, heavy hitters in the industry are having a hard time embracing to New Business models that have must be implicated in order to accommodate non-traditional media. Danny Goldberg, Chairman and CEO of Artemis Records has affirmed the general consensus in a PBS interview, here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/perfect/internet.html . He remarked, “I don't know about other business, but I think in the entertainment business in general, people who are successful tend to fear change and fear the unknown...In terms of dealing with the Internet, it's been a profound challenge for the music business.”


Record labels are mourning the death of the CD, whilst avenging the demise of sales through the RIAA’s ‘cease and desist’ mailings to the thousands of once-loyal customers. The current state of the business looks as if it is about to end from illegal downloading. But where there is death, new life sprouts from its deathbed.

There are new modes to flourish and proliferate when non-traditional (or new and exciting) forms of media are coming into place. Now, the industry is being taken over by portable MP3
Players (iPod), online music stores (iTunes, SnoCap), video on demand (YouTube), the video game industry, and social networks (MySpace). Ted Cohen, the Senior Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution of EMI Music had stated, "the billions of songs downloaded from the Web monthly has shown that the digital music revolution is well underway...music fans and artists are going to benefit from the new paradigms and new business models that are emerging.”

Before the Digital Age, customers were wary of new bands, and less willing to expose themselves to new artists because of the dependence on radio, limited accessibility to song samples and cost of a CD. This once put artists in a disadvantageous position to have less exposure than today, without the possible springboards of MySpace. Thankfully to MySpace, today, there is less risk to expose oneself to new artists. We are no longer paying to hear a full length song, buying magazines to read an album review, waiting to view artist photos, or relying on MTV to air an artist’s music video.
Everything is smaller, faster, stronger and most importantly, EASIER. In the next five years, everything will have to be easy.

Portable MP3 Players:
Seeing since DRM is already well on its way out of the window, The Music Industry may later on allow file-sharing or DRM free devices for the iPod and Zune. These devices, along with Sim Cards and Micro SD cards (memory chips for MP3’s) may be the sole mechanisms used for playing songs. In fact, people may just get rid of MP3 playing devices altogether, and stick to memory chips, like the Sim or Micro SD card. These chips have already been used to play music in cell phones and audio sound systems for vehicles. Audi and many other car companies have already implicated packages in their cars that can store one or even two cards as music libraries for audio systems. These nickel-sized chips withhold leaps and bounds of memory, are lighter than a quarter, and are fairly priced (even in today’s market). Even more fascinating about these memory chips is that they can be navigated through (like an iPod) audio players (like car audio systems) simply through a display screen and buttons supplied by the device using it. Laptops and computers will have ports for these chip cards so one can easily upload music with it, without the need for a USB wire or firewire cable.

Online Music Stores:
It’s still debatable whether all music will be free in the next 5 years, but The Music Industry may entirely embrace DRM-free music for all songs that they will carry. One could play, rip and burn songs to their hearts content, without the digital stamp that has blessed MP3’s and AAC files for so long. If music may still not be free, it will be marked down even more. Music buying may arrive in the form of subscriptions where users pay a small, monthly fee to download an excessive or unlimited number of songs, at high quality and format. With this, may also bring unlimited downloads of artist videos, interviews and photos through the very same online store. iTunes or other online stores could later on introduce ticket sales and merchandise through the same online store. This way, the user is more likely to have a one-stop shop, in an easy online format.

Video On Demand:
YouTube is and will be the go-to for on demand artist music videos. The mechanism for easy sharing and viewing of footage has only made it more versatile than other online media player. The advent of portable mobile devices has only expanded the many ways the public is able to utilize, watch and share media through YouTube, now that a large portion of these devices can capture and play video. According to YouTube’s Fact Sheet (http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet), “The explosion in consumer devices with video capability is giving users control over the videos they record, watch, and share, and YouTube is dedicated to making their experience as easy and entertaining as possible.” While YouTube is predominantly used for the searching of old episodes of primetime sitcoms, archived television shows, or home movies, YouTube has taken shape into a social networking interface as well. In Time’s best invention of 2006, Lev Grossman wrote, “The way blogs made regular folks into journalists, YouTube makes them into celebrities.” The article can be viewed here: http://www.time.com/time/2006/techguide/bestinventions/inventions/youtube2.html.
Given YouTube’s current buy-out from Google, it is still unclear where the pioneer of easy video on demand may be five years from now. But online video on demand will be used in the future more to display live acts from artists, music videos, and fan testimonials…all at a quicker, easier rate.

Video Games:
The Future of Music book has accounts from experts in the music industry, one of them being Steve Schner. According to Steve Schnur, the Worldwide Executive of Music, for Electronic Arts, he sees this change in the industry before his very eyes, watching business models change. He acknowledges that it is an industry “…at the crossroads. For those of us who left the record business to go into the music business, video games are the new rock 'n' roll. But no matter where this revolution begins or ends, the industry must learn to respect and react to its consumers.” Five years from now, video games may be the last place for artists to receive a huge bulk of revenue from. Video game companies may also create online music stores for video game players to purchase music, solely for use with their video games. Rock Band and Guitar Hero II are planning on implementing this idea in the very near future.

Social Networks:
Some may debate that today’s white-hot flame of Social Network may diminish into a tiny glow in five years. It is indeed possible that these huge networking webs will break up into smaller interest groups, but it leaves out users who choose to be actively cross-banded with everyone and anyone. Naysayers are missing the fact Social Networking sites have almost gifted all of its users with a sense of self-validation. People like to be recognized, acknowledged and adored…The Facebook and MySpace give this self-gratification to most of its users, and lots of its users have grown addicted to it as a result of this. I cannot see how these Social Network addicts are going to be willing to give this up. People are predicting that MySpace will implode on itself, because of its massive size and others say that it is destined to lose touch like Friendster’s fade out. A large number of people rely on MySpace for networking with Facebook-less people and MySpace Music.

Myspace music is indeed destined to carry on within the next five years. This is because of the rebirth of the playlist. Myspace will likely design an interface for its users that allow them to cherry pick songs from different artists and arrange them into a mix or playlist. This playlist will be posted on the user’s profile, most likely titled, “What I’m Listening To Right Now.” The playlist will also double as an alternating music player on a profile page, rather than a single song widget on each profile. This way, users will be able to sift through 2-50 songs that a profile displays in a playlist. It gives more exposure for more artists, to more users, in a smaller amount of time....rather than a single widget player.