Changing ways to listen to the music industry.

When talking to my family the other day they were speaking about recording the radio onto tapes. How a sunday night chart show they would have to be silent so they could pick up the music. Then going to by there first vinyl. Leading up to us, the kids, buying our first cd and what was it. I think everyone can remember what was there first single they bought and it is sad that the younger people would never physically buy a single. Now it is easier, cheaper and quicker to get the music you want. I never by cds anymore now, one because i am no good with them, i would easily scartch them and not put them in the correct case. Second because if i hear a song that i like i need to buy it instantly, not because i cant wait, but because i will forget the name of the song. So having I-Tunes i can keep it all organised and create my own playlist in a matter of seconds.

Another interesting thing when talking to my family is that my uncle and auntie were so against the downloading music. They like listening to the tapes, mainly i think for the sentimental value as while they were trying to record the chart song they would get someone talking over it. But if you think in a life time how much it has changed from vinyl, cd to download where can the future go?

Change of music industry due to internet.

"And I absolutely listen to more music than I used to," says the 23-year-old. "I pretty much have music playing all the time. It's because I can access so much of it, however I want."

The music industry has a new Internet problem. A decade ago, the major record labels began to worry about online piracy, in which people illegally swapped music over peer-to-peer networks like Napster (BBY) and later LimeWire. Partly in response to the piracy threat and partly due to sliding CD sales, music companies began to experiment with licensing their records to new online services.

sites allow music fans to spend much less money than in the past. "Most of this is substitutional. People go to [the Web] instead of buying records," says Jay Rosenthal, senior vice-president and general counsel for the National Music Publisher.
The new world of music looks very different from the old. With the new Web, services' listeners don't put CDs into a stereo or download tunes to their iPod. Instead, their music sits on a server somewhere else, waiting to be played from a computer or any other Net-connected device

What has been the impact of the internet on media production?

The biggest industry that has been impacted by the emergence of the new media and interenet.

It has taken the advantage of digital technology and better respond of changing to the consumers taste.

The traditional high cost of content;
- the role of content ownship
- distribution
- sacarcity of distribution outlets

Aol, microsoft, music and mp3.com to take advantage of this vacum to agressively build the process for the marketing, distrubition, retailing music online.

The major lables
- universal
- sony bmg
- emi
- warner brothers
- virgin records

Digital transition continued with computers as a reproduction device.

started with cds and make the unplayble on computers.

Internet has increased all over the world.

It was estimated that by october 2000, napsters software was installed on 30 % of all pc worldwide, and it continued to grow. In february 2001 napster has 26.4 million users worldwide. Some researches showed that the average users in March '01 was spending time using Napster then browsing any music retaled web site.

June '01, napster shut down. Moreover it agreed tompay 26 million to creators and music owners for the lapsed period. In september '02 napster declared bankcrupt.
Napster is striving to become respectable subscription service legal distribution.

Napster case showed several issues to conside by major players.

Internet file sharing is an inevitable fact and a rapidly increasing trend

People enjoy to trade music and to download favourite songs at zero cost.

People prefer to download individual songs, not entire albums.

People on searching for popular music but also music that is diffcult to obtain in offline music stores ( for example older song and regional songs)

digital music industry is not immune to theft within recording companies( for instance some songs were released through napster months prior to the commercial release such as metallica "i disappear"

cd sales went down.

In order to be succesful online distribution their catalogues have to hold music from 5 distributions plus many independance ones.