Making it Big in the World of Music
Final Exam Essay
Today there are thousands upon thousands of musical artists trying to get recognized in the world of music. Getting recognized is only the first step however, because it has become nearly impossible for artists to make any profit at all, from the recordings of their songs. With tons of different methods and ways to illegally download nearly every song released to date, artists must turn their attentions to new fashions of gaining popularity. Therefore, the consumption of recorded music, no matter if legal or illegal, augments the popularity of an artist and thus leads to increased sales of the artist’s legal goods. While the sales of singles and albums have been greatly diminishing as the accessibility of illegal downloading software and programs climbs, artists are still able to make a profit off of their other legal goods such as merchandise (t-shirts, poster, etc.) and concert ticket sales.
One of the absolute biggest problems artists struggle with today is creating profitable musical recordings. The reason being primarily that as soon as an artist releases a new song, it is almost instantaneously uploaded to a piracy website where anyone with access to a computer and the Internet can download it. According to the Yahoo article, A Comprehensive Look at A&M Records vs. Napster, Its Components and Consequences, “Literally thousands of songs were available, and all of them were free. The innovation lay in the fact that anything was available. What distributors promoted was not always what the consumers wanted. The users could download the latest Madonna songs, but they could also access Sesame Street's "Rubby Ducky" song in German.” Another huge problem is that when consumers don’t like a released single, they can almost always find a different version online that they like better, for free (illegally). According to that same article, CD’s had become a $40 billion dollar industry in the mid 1990’s but downloading can be held responsible for
Today there are thousands upon thousands of musical artists trying to get recognized in the world of music. Getting recognized is only the first step however, because it has become nearly impossible for artists to make any profit at all, from the recordings of their songs. With tons of different methods and ways to illegally download nearly every song released to date, artists must turn their attentions to new fashions of gaining popularity. Therefore, the consumption of recorded music, no matter if legal or illegal, augments the popularity of an artist and thus leads to increased sales of the artist’s legal goods. While the sales of singles and albums have been greatly diminishing as the accessibility of illegal downloading software and programs climbs, artists are still able to make a profit off of their other legal goods such as merchandise (t-shirts, poster, etc.) and concert ticket sales.
One of the absolute biggest problems artists struggle with today is creating profitable musical recordings. The reason being primarily that as soon as an artist releases a new song, it is almost instantaneously uploaded to a piracy website where anyone with access to a computer and the Internet can download it. According to the Yahoo article, A Comprehensive Look at A&M Records vs. Napster, Its Components and Consequences, “Literally thousands of songs were available, and all of them were free. The innovation lay in the fact that anything was available. What distributors promoted was not always what the consumers wanted. The users could download the latest Madonna songs, but they could also access Sesame Street's "Rubby Ducky" song in German.” Another huge problem is that when consumers don’t like a released single, they can almost always find a different version online that they like better, for free (illegally). According to that same article, CD’s had become a $40 billion dollar industry in the mid 1990’s but downloading can be held responsible for