The Music Industry

 1. How has the music industry changed over the last 30 years?

    It is certain to say that the music industy has changed drastically during the past 30 years, especially with the rise of the internet. Ever since the intervention of computers and digital music instead of CDs and cassettes, music has had the chance to be more widely distributed since it has been easier to both purchase and own music. At the beginning of the 00s, people have started owning iPods and watching music videos on the television instead of playing the vinyl or CDs. The birth of online streaming platforms also weaken (by a little) the power of big record labels, setting a more solid ground for independent indie artists to start their own music career, which helps diversify the music industy even further.

2. How do you, and other people now access music? What is your relationship with music?

    Most of the people around me, including friends my age, my teachers, my parents, and even kids younger than me, all listen and stream music on digital on-demand streaming platforms like YouTube Music, Spotify and Apple Music. This way, they have larger accesses to different genres of music as well as music videos without having to purchase music every time they want to listen to a different song. I personally still prioritise listening to music on these platforms, but I also still own cassette tapes as I feel like I could enjoy music as its original state more (physical state). Or maybe I'm just an old soul. 

    My relationship with music has started before I was even born. My family has music running in our blood, my grandfather has been the conductor of the church' choir since forever, my auntie has been the piano teacher since the early 2000s, and I was taught to play the piano at the age of 6. I love music with my mind, my heart, my soul, and my childhood. Being in a band helps me to get access to music and boardens my knowledge about the depth of it a lot. I might not be good at it, but I have the love for it. My favourite childhood song is 'Unbreak My Heart' by Toni Braxton. I can still remember the 4-year-old me singing that song at the top of my lungs with my parents, not knowing a single English word. Music is attached to memories, and memories are what I hold onto so tightly throughout my life.

3. Do people still 'own' music?

    Yes, but it has became way less popular to do so. In the past, 'owning' music is the only way for people to consume it. By purchasing every vinyl records, CDs and cassette tapes, listeners can play and enjoy them. Nowadays, it has been much easier to consume music as we now have on-deman streaming services e.g. YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music and many others. The audience doesn't seem to be owning music anymore, they have more rights to mass-consume music.

4. How do artists get paid for their music in the new digital world?

    In today's world, it has been less complicated for artists to participate in the music industry and make money from it. With artists that are signed with record labels, their label will put their music onto different on-demand streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, and the labels will be paid by those platforms according to the numbers of streams the song has. The labels will take out a considerable amount of revenue and pay their artists the rest. The figure that artists get paid is generally small since it has been taken out mostly by their labels and the streaming platforms, but in return, the labels' large budgets can be invested into marketing and PR for the songs, which are efficient ways to promote and to increase streams. The case is a bit different when it comes to independent artists as they work directly with the streaming platforms and they can keep whatever the platforms pay them. Another way for these artists to earn money from publishing songs is to put them onto YouTube and earn money from advertisements. If artists can bring traffic towards YouTube by having their songs streamed, brands will pay them to put their ads throughout the video, so many artists consider it as a win-win situation and pursue this method.