Monday, September 30, 2013

September 30, 2013


Three Big Changes in Music Since the 80s

  1. MTV

  • created the necessity for a “look” and allowed artists who cashed in on “look” to become more successful
  • Madonna uses this and it uses her - perfect combo - exactly what the industry would want
  • LOOKS become a serious must in the industry
  • black artists were not accepted on MTV for a few years
  • black artists were NOT a big part of the video music industry at first
  • why? because they are black and America is racist. 
  1. Napster

  • this was a program that allowed P2P file transfers 
  • you could share your mp3 collections over the internet with other people via this software (the first of the BT kind of things)
  • first, songs had to be compressed - mp3s are compressed songs
  • Napster allowed collectors to share difficult to find songs
  • started with bootlegs - concert recordings, alt takes, etc
  • off the board mixes - pre-release
  • eventually, people realized, oh, I can get every song I want!
  • collection stripping

Other programs come out and do the same thing
Music stops being a commodity and becomes a giveaway for artists
Artists make their money now through live shows, selling to movies and ads, merch, etc

Argument!

Downloading is bad - yes - artists don’t get paid
Downloading is good - exposure to tons of new bands for no investment

  1. Apple

  • the industry is never going to be what it was, and Apple saw that and jumped in with both feet and changed everything
  • a) iPod - this was a genius invention that now owns the space - 
  • took the idea of an mp3 player and locked it into a program that they controlled
  • broke the record companies
  • broke the model for business
  • forced the bands to adapt
  • now, bands give music away and sell their shows and other elements of themselves

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