Entretenimento

How did the internet change music? Part 4

Reno Silva
Correspondente
Musical

Hello everyone, welcome to the Part 4 and the final of how the internet changed the face of music both as a music consumer and as a music creator. Things have changed so much for musicians since 1995, assuming that musicians today know the way things were alternatively prior to 1995. To be clear, I have been saying 1995, because it was when the MP3 was essentially born. The real action however really began to be seen and felt in 1999.
Prior to 1999, and even until 2004, bands would tour to support the album. Everything was all about ha- ving that album get bought, why not? There was such a generous markup on it, it was the target of getting people to it, the recorded gem. This was where the artist’s creative genius would live forever, sounding the same it did the first time you heard it as it would to your future great grandkids. So much work went into it, this can’t possibly change the area of focus, can it? Incredibly, it does change.
Right before this time, most concerts that would happen locally in Toronto at the CNE stadium, Maple Leaf Gardens, Skydome or Kingswood Music Theatre for the most famous of bands would be on average $27 – $35 a ticket. It is staggering to compare it to today’s prices of on the high end of $250 – $300 a ticket. What a huge jump! The first thing that happened was that The Eagles got back together for a reunion tour. They were the first band to charge $100 for a concert ticket. This set into motion bands charging more and more until it has plateaued to what we know the prices to be today. Of course, if the artists were losing the income in one place, they needed to get it back from somewhere else. Aside from fuel costs, nothing really changed in terms of what the concert was offering show-wise, but yet the prices for concert tickets shot up. The roles were reversed, the bands were now putting out CD’s, recordings, to get people to come out to the show, in effect releasing albums to support the live shows whereas they used to do live shows to support the album. Further emphasizing that fact would be British super band Radiohead deciding in 2007 that they would release an album that let the consumer pay whatever they wanted to pay for it. It was a bold move that saw other bands / singers follow-up similar publicity events. For example, Prince gave his album “Musicology” away for free with the price of a concert ticket in 2004, then again in 2007 he included a free copy of the album “Planet Earth” with the national newspaper “The Mail” in the UK. These were massive moves that isolated a new hard cold fact – that the album is now a tool or commercial to get people out to come and see the band. All present and future bands had to react much within those parameters.
The changes at the record labels were monumental as well. Suddenly the record labels did not have the money to advance to new artists. Advances could have been anywhere from $10,000 to $1,000,000, all depending on the prospect of success, the involvement required for recording the album and what else the artist would need to be developed or refined. Those days, for the most part, were gone. Jobs were lost in many levels at Record companies, some of them went bankrupt, mergers took place for survival and record stores began to slowly close. Stores like Music World, Discus, A&A, Sam The Record Man, Tower Records and finally HMV have all closed. A phenomenon that is 100% attributed to 2 reasons – 1) the birth of the internet and its facilitation of piracy and 2) the fact that people want to store music on their small devices, be it iPods or their mobile phones. To point the finger solely however – the birth of the internet, the need to compress music to go back and forth to then be made small enough to be stored on our own devices sealed the fate of the physical media. I will never forget going to that same building at Capitol / EMI in 2007 to meet with the head of A&R about my band’s new CD, that was so loud and busy making CD’s and cassettes that I did work placement back in 1994 – it was empty. So empty and quiet, almost cavernous. I remember thinking to myself – “the internet did this, this is the result of the piracy, through and through, all of these people lost their jobs.”
What WOULD offer up a new source of income for artists, would be the digital one. The digital music domain would not only be the place where record labels would retain income, but it would do so with a MUCH bigger playing field with just about EVERYONE offering up their music there as well. Thanks to the Digital Music Marketplace and the birth of online Social Media, just about anyone could upload something they did on their Casio keyboard at home in their basement and be found beside some of the biggest names in music. Myspace was one of the first sites that allowed you to have your music uploaded there to procure new fans, then Reverbnation and other sites as well, all with the intent on making money in advertising off of web traffic. This fact came perfectly timed with YouTube, which also began a pay structure through its partner company Adsense based on how many views you got. Bands had to be invested in their online activity to not only be made visible but also use this suddenly new platform to find new fans. Bands could now, literally be seen anywhere in the world WITHOUT the help of a record label, all on their own. This would however, also place the onus on the bands or singers to create as much hype for themselves with the most views, followers to verify themselves as a worthy prospect for be considered by the major record labels. Record companies now want to see that you have a following, that you are investing your own efforts to further your career. They no longer have the arsenal of staff or money to do it for you and truth be told, you do have an incredible tool at your disposal to help you with it – the internet!
In closing, for a music consumer, we are now able to get music for less, we can store it all on our phones. We can also discover bands from ANYWHERE in the world, and we can literally pull their music up right away on YouTube. But concerts are more expensive, WAY more expensive.
For bands and singers, we now can be found by anyone in the world, if we build up enough interest in that area, we can go do shows there. We can continue to be discovered, have our songs streamed, be downloaded on iTunes and other services. We can also make more in live performances if we gain some popularity and even maybe continue to sell CDs at shows the old school way. If we choose to go with a label now, they can profit off of work we have put in, as well get percentages of our shows, radio play and all other forms of income.
Everything in music has evolved along with the internet and will continue to do so regardless of how we feel about it. Nobody could have predicted the changes that have taken place as a result of the arrival of the internet, but everyone has certainly adapted out of necessity.

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