| June
10, 2005
Trends
in music come and go, and the trends for 2005 are no different.
Therefore, it is unlikely that the trends we see in 2005 will be
sticking around forever, but there is reason to believe that music
has seen a trend recently come that should stick. The ability that
consumers of music have to bypass the major channels of distribution
to get their music (read: illegal downloads instead of the music
store and online radio versus mainstream radio) has led the way
to a new freedom in music. This ability to get one’s music
to the public in unconventional ways has opened the door to many
more artists. The major corporations involved in pop music are losing
their grip on what the everyday person can hear.
Gwen
Stefani's new album is inconsequential. |
There are still the major studio-pushed albums like Gwen Stefani’s
Love. Angel. Music. Baby., or Mariah Carey’s The
Emancipation of Mimi, and they do very well. However, a very
large contingent of music-makers today consists of the indie bands
that get their music to the public through unconventional channels,
most notably, the internet. The Gwens and Mariahs still do well
when they are head to head with indie artists like Gorillaz, Aqueduct,
or Bloc Party; but without the new venue of the internet to spread
their wealth, smaller label bands or independent musicians wouldn’t
have been able to even compete with the big shots.
Growth of online-only radio stations like woxy.com and radioio.com
and, of course the instant success of iTunes compliments the push
of blogs and sites like thestateofart.com which tend to promote
great, but unconventional music. The infrasctucture that the internet
is provides for the possibility of success for bands like The Postal
Service, which was noted here in 2003 as having the album of the
year, and can now be heard on most pop/rock radio stations.
David
Terry's Aqueduct has benefitted from the Internet Music movement. |
There is a wealth of great music out there that is just a click
away now, and thanks to the web, music is benefitting. Large record
labels have to look twice at smaller label artists and they have
to question their large budgets on music that is inconsequential
(like Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”). Independent
musicians and labels counted for about 25 percent of the $32 billion
global music market in 2003, according to the International Federation
of the Phonographic Industry, and according to an industry expert,
the music industry has lost about one third of its revenue due to
illegal downloading.
This trend cannot be ignored by the industry elites, and the trend
will spread and allow every listener of new music to be more discerning.
Before the internet, music shoppers had basically four or five radio
stations from their immediate vicinity to learn about new music,
as well as their local vinyl record shop. Now, consumers have thousands
upon thousands of streaming radio stations from just about every
country on Earth to choose from.
The ultimate result is justice in music. The internet provides this
justice, as it does for other industries, by taking control out
of the hands of a few small central powers and gives it directly
to the consumer. Once this power is acknowledged by the consumer,
it will only continue to grow.
-plasma
|
