THE END OF MUSIC AS WE KNOW IT?

Music has changed radically since the days of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to the state it is in today. Some would argue that the change has been for the worse. Whatever the case it has inarguably changed, and so have it's mediums.

On careful consideration though, it seems to have come full circle. First, without the existence of audio technology, obviously the only way for people to hear music was live. Then came Vinyl records, followed by tapes and CDs and then came the low key mini discs to todays HDCDs and Mp3s. Now the way it is headed is towards live performances again.

Music as we have come to know it is about to change completely. The biggest reason is that omnipresent and almost omniscient phenomena- the internet. Because of the growth of digitalization of music and the proliferation of P2P( Peer to peer, a way of sharing files online) the perception of music has become totally re oriented. A vast majority of people with internet access prefer to download music from the internet- for free!

The corporates tried to fight this phenomena; remember apple pushing for DRM( Digital rights management)? But the overwhelming voice of the people spoke loud and clear, drowning Apple's right brigade. Now Apple has all but turned around from it's previous stance and made music from it's Itunes store compatible for any music player. A true instance of the people's trend deciding the flow of business.

In these circumstances how can the artistes be unaffected? The days when artistes could make millions through the sale of CDs and tapes is now a thing of the past. Even before the albums are officially released the music of even biggies are being leaked online for anyone with an internet connection to download absolutely free! Madonna's latest album 'Hard Candy' was leaked onto internet P2P sites almost weeks before the official release. The obvious had thus occurred; artistes are now turning to live concerts to rake in the moolah!

The latest news in the music world is Jay Z's reported 150 Mil$ deal with Live Nation, the concert promoters. This closely folows the deals with U2 and Madonna. This deal gives Live Nation the right to all of Jay Z's records and concert appearances for the next decade. While this will obviously raise Jay Z's financial health to dizzying heights, it also has very subtle, but nevertheless very obvious messages.

The first thing is that the music industry seems to have finally accepted the inevitable instead of fighting it. Jay Z was the CEO of Def Jam records, and when the CEO of a record company jumps ship to sign a deal of this nature the music industry better be listening- and well too!

Secondly it signals the trend that's gonna become the norm in the future- artistes giving away materials themselves and earning through ad revenues and live concerts. Take the example of Coldplay, the mega British band, that recently gave away music from it's new album 'Viva LA Vida' for free on their site for a week. Or Radiohead who gave away their entire album online while leaving it to the listener's to decide how much they wanted to pay... While the experiments were not total successes they are definitely a hint of what's to come.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the future of music is going to be closely linked with the growth of unconventional mediums of distribution. Myspace for example, the phenomena that created stars like Colbie Caillat and Plain White Ts. It was extremely radical and unconventional when it started, with many pooh pooing it. But today it's one of the biggest revenue generators on the net with unlimited influence on the music industry.

Where music is going to be a few years from now certainly boggles the mind given the speed with which trends are changing. Whatever the case the obvious gainers are going to be the consumers of music who seem to be getting everything their way right now! Have a great day Y'all!