The Digital Future

Recently, I spoke with a colleague and fellow musician about the growth and ever-consistent change in the digital music era, in which we live. He mentioned that there was a deficiency in the music industry; a deficiency whereby we are affected due to the fact that know one person nor business knows the instrument needed to bridge the gap that has caused the decline in revenue, in record sales, by over 50% in the last decade.  His words were as follows: “I am working on it and when I find it it will change the industry forever.”

In an article entitled “Can the Music Industry Adapt to the Digital Future?” Writer Ross Lawrence summarizes the change that has taken place over the last 30 years from vinyl to cassette and CD’s. He then goes on to explain the decline in record sales that has not only affected the emoluments for the musicians or “artists” but the record labels as well, causing many labels to fold. In the article Lawrence tells how “Napster, an online community for sharing MP3 files free of charge” was a beacon for the decline in record sales for many reasons:

-The introduction to illegal downloading

-Opened doors and generated new ideas for other websites to commit piracy

-The lackluster feel for the consumer to not have to go out and actually purchase music

Although Apple has monopolized the digital downloading era with their 99 cent per song sold option, there still has been nothing to stop the illegal downloading of music. According to Tim Siglin, in an article entitled “The Changing Digital Music Landscape,” Apple “currently dominates-to the tune of almost 80% market share-a market that has now risen to an annual rate of 353 million songs. This now only leaves us with the issue of illegal downloading.

Realizing that the future of music and film, whether it be marketing or sales, is leaning toward digital and mobile facility we must embrace this new culture of technology and utilize it. With the masters program of entertainment business that my colleague and I have recently matriculated through, we are well equipped with the knowledge of how to go about doing so.

http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/region_focus/2010/q3/pdf/feature4.pdf

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