In recent years, the music industry has greatly transformed due to advances in technology that have made music more accessible. Streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music have grown in recent years and captured our society’s attention. Many devices, including tablets and smartphones allow people to listen to music more frequently, making streaming a major convenience. In order to gain new subscribers, music services are now teaming up with high-profile artists, such as Drake and Kanye West for exclusive album and song releases. This formula persuades fans and listeners to pay for streaming in order to access high quality music from their favorite performers through media.
A majority of music streaming services have become more popular than ever due to its appeal toward the younger generation. Studies show that over 72% of Spotify listeners are millennials, revealing that streaming is slowly taking over the music business. Physical CD sales have dropped as low as 84% in the last decade as digital sales are still going strong, but are expected to decline in the next few years. This can affect the music industry, record labels and their artists as well. For my project, I plan to do a research paper on how streaming has impacted society and whether its effect on music and other media can reshape technology in the future.
I think it may be helpful to speak to people from the previous generation and ask them what the music industry was like in their day. What was the culture like? For example the experience of buying CDs and making mix-tapes for friends, not having instant access to any music ever made. Also, how they feel about streaming, the present day music industry, and what they think the future of music will look like. I think it will be a nice contrast to just speaking on what's happening now.
ReplyDeleteI think another interesting stat you could add to your project can be the fact that Vinyls have become trendy again. Chances are that people buying vinyls have had to recently buy record players. I've seen new record players at stores like Barnes & Nobles, and they're powered up through a USB cable. Perhaps you could talk to upcoming artists, and what the experience of them uploading their music on websites like SoundCould is like versus creating a CD to give out.
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic. I'd really like to know if it's gotten better or worse for both upcoming and top artists and how artists like Chance the Rapper are able to make money without actually ever putting out an album yet. Just a couple suggestions of things to explore.
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