Technology Music Consumption

According to one historian, “Technology has made its impact on every industry: fashion, entertainment, architecture, science, computers, and especially the music industry,” (Tech 1). Indeed, technology has dramatically altered the nature of the way music is created, manufactured, marketed, distributed, and consumed. Digital technologies have significantly changed the way musicians record music, the way record companies distribute music, and the way consumers consume music. From Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technologies to Mesh Networks, technology has also dramatically changed the way consumers consume music. The advent of the Internet and such technologies as those above has enabled music consumers to download MP3 music files. However, many P2P networks enabled consumers do download music files, both old and recently released music, for free. Websites like Napster offered access to thousands of computer users to swap music files for free. Such files included the latest music available, including many selections available even before being released for sale by the artist or record company.

Such developments have significantly impacted the way consumers consume music. By downloading music files for free, consumers forced the record industry and angry artists to completely retool the way music is priced, marketed, and offered for sale. The motivation for such retooling was decreased sales of CDs in record sto

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8 cents for each time their song sells. In 2002, Strouse received approximately $250,000 in royalties for his songs (Bernstein 1). While not as popular for downloading as major artists like Brittney Spears or Eminem, Strouse did have a major hit thanks to Jay-Z’s version of Hard Knock Life which was based on Strouse’ song of the same title from Annie. According to online media measurement company BigChampagne, Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Life was downloaded 1.2 million times from July 2000 through May 2003 (Bernstein 1). If Strouse would have received royalties on this number of sales, he would have been paid an additional $46,000 in royalty payments (Bernstein 1). Many artists and songwriters cannot afford such losses, particularly those who invest multiple millions of dollars to produce, market and distribute their latest CDs. Despite such losses, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Verizon were resistant to disclose the identities of users in lawsuits of record companies and the RIAA. However, the information was disclosed as a requirement mandated by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which gave record companies the right to subpoena the names of users. According to one industry analyst, consumer became wary in the face
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Some common words found in the essay are:
John Rose, Mesh Networks, Graham Spanier, Companies Napster, Digital Tracks, Garrity Billboard, Life Project, BMG Record, Websites Napster, Computer Inc, music files, digital music, record companies, music consumers, music industry, riaa record companies, consumers consume, files free, riaa record, downloading music, downloading music files, consumers consume music, consume music, music files free, free music files,
Approximate Word count = 3198
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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