Music Reflection

Music is a very personal element to many people, it can be used as an emotive stimulant for many of its consumers, including me. Music has the ability to affect or influence a person in many ways regardless of genre. This personal nature makes the concept of music in turn delicate and personal to the individual, in the modern world with the newly introduced ease of access caused due to modern technology the music industry has found it easier to promote and introduce their music to the world via the likes of iTunes and so on. Although there is also a conflictive effect to this introduction of new technology in that with all of this ease of access to push and acquire this new music, how do we find the talented artists from the fame hungry or less talented artists? These talented artists might never get noticed due to the unreliable and unpredictable nature and distribution of the music industry. Luck and computer skills often prevails more than raw talent unfortunately.

Music itself is very easily obtained in this golden age of technology, while ten or more years ago the only ways of obtaining and exchanging music was buying the album or record in a record or specialist store. Nowadays music can be bought comparatively cheaper and easier, whether this be because we have more wealth to purchase the music or because people have a social obligation to own albums and such etc. Yet this is not often the case, social views on the exchange of music has become blurred over recent years, why purchase an album for £11.99 when you can torrent the album for free using the pirate bay, isohunt and utorrent? Why waste time and energy leaving your house to fund the already full and greedy hands of the music distributors,  PR Companies and multi-millionaire fame hungry artists when you can hit a button and stream all the music you want for free? These ideals have become common and accepted in society, there is almost a stigma associated with actually purchasing a hard copy of an album, this is primarily the result of peer-pressure and laziness for the most part. But people often forget that this method of obtaining music is illegal. using these illegal sites while might be easy and free will not support local bands and will not fund independent artists. Sites like P2P and such are often used to disguise a consumers IP address so that the can download all the music they want without fair of being caught. As a result music has almost all but become 'free', as apposed to the hefty cost years ago. Personally I would prefer to order and consume my music through iTunes and Spotify primarily because of their ease of access which has developed over the years and their relative cheapness (especially Spotify which allows almost limitless streaming for a £10 subscription a month), or by ordering an album via Amazon which again is extremely simple to do. I know there is always the option for illegally obtaining this music or even verging legal methods such as YouTube converter but the fear of being caught and the consequences of the actions is enough to make me avoid that element of the obtaining and consumption of music, i'd rather spend my money to support an indie or local band.

Record players, fairly expensive, often difficult to use, heavy in some cases, large in stature and if damaged it would require further money to get the machine repaired, money which people didn't have, then there was the purchasing of a record, an object which contained two singles which in turn was quite expensive. This was just to play a single, once this song/single was finished you could turn it over manually to listen to the second song, there was no shuffle, repeat or song change. Record stores whether local or such as the likes of HMV where the main source of this music. To make music as an artist you would need the equipment, the motivation to push forward, a label, a PR company, money, an audience... essentially you need the methods, skills, talents and materials to make the music, a famed distributor and strong marketing campaign if an artist hoped to succeed and a method to reach as large of an audience as possible, it was all a lot of effort, time and money. Today you need an iPhone and an internet connection. No longer do you need this forceful push form artists towards labels, marketers and distributors as all you simply need to do is record your voice and upload your voice to YouTube or iTunes  I have first hand experience in aiding a friend in this aspect of attempting to distribute personal music, and within an hour of deciding to cover a song it was recorded and uploaded to YouTube  Within sixty seconds we had done what was near impossible years ago, an action which would have took months of hard work. CD's followed records, Compact discs which could contain multiple songs on one platform. Cheaper and smaller than records and more easily obtained. Even in recent years nearly all relatively big named stores sell CD's such as Tescos and ASDA. But because of technological advancement the concept of buying CD's is dying out, they have become more expensive to purchase and consume especially in comparison to listening or streaming via the internet.

Today music is available on nearly all platforms to download, listen, buy or stream. The range from TV, mp3's, mp4's, iPods, Ps3's, Xbox's, Computers, Radios, supermarkets and public transport to the likes of tooth brushes which play music when you brush your teeth or shoes which play a song when pressure is applied to the heel, music industries are trying for new, fresh and innovative ways of reaching a larger audience with their music. In the past the only ways to listen to music was via radio, TV or in concert, then followed records and CD's. Personally I choose the more modern methods of listening to music primarily via iPhone and computer, its easier and mobile, a pivotal element to the evolution of the music industry over the year. Never again do we have to be in one place to listen to a song, we can be on the move and hold an entire library of music at your finger tips, this has spiked the consumption of music and has made it more socially mainstream. But this does not mean people prefer these methods, many people I know without hesitation state that no matter what nothing beats the experience of hearing a band live in concert, that you may argue that your a fan, buy their music, download their single, stream their album, but you can never fully appreciate the industry and artist until you have shared the experience of sharing your support at a concert, something which has not changed over the years. Napster and Myspace are both prime examples of how the music industry has evolved over the years, these where world renowned companies which millions of users and a loyal fan base but as soon as something 'new and shiny' and innovative is introduced they are more often than not forgot about, iTunes has learned to adept to this social meme and has kept updating and constructing new formats and methods of distributing music in accordance to peoples ideals, it also helps that the mass use of marketing helps fund and reach a larger audience to obtain and keep its well renowned status. The ease at which these industries allow the music to be obtained effects how it is consumed, the likes of iTunes which is relatively easy to use allows for more inexperienced users to consume its content often at home, radio stations allow for the consumption of music on the go especially on public transport and phones and music devices ranging from the early Walkman to the mp3 and now Tablets and iPhone's combined with the advancements in headphone technology has allowed for more mobile consumption of music. This is caused primarily due to the converging of technology over the years, no longer does twenty pieces of equipment need to be used to listen or make music, a simple audio and capturing device such as a phone can be used instead. I own an iPhone and have the ability myself to make a song at anytime i want with no need for anything else but the phone, apps can handle all that for me which shows further how the music industry has evolved to distribute and market new ways to reach its audience.

I remember the many times in which I ventured into my garage and stumbled over the mass collection of my dads old CD's records and tapes, the ground was littered with cases books and film. I could spend hours searching for an album and when I finally find it I discover a sharp crack crawling down the edge of the CD, my heart sank every time this happened, I could never bare to see a disk damaged and need thrown out. Not now a days, all my music is stored either via my computers iTunes library or via Soundcloud which shows just really how the music industry has affected how I obtain and store music, sure I still have the odd album but not nearly in as high a frequency as I did years ago. It is easily stored and organised via this newly developed and reconstructed method.

Artists but a lot of hard work into promoting and constructing their image and music. Although this is not nearly as difficult as it was to do years ago as today instead of just a push from the production side was needed to promote and sell music this is replaced with a push pull factor as in turn the fans, consumers and audience pressures the production side to make more music in a certain appealing way. Similarly the ways of communicating with an artist has evolved further because of the evolution and convergence of technology, in place of writing a note to an artist there is now emails, Facebook  twitter and so on. Artists often react towards how their mass audience or fans respond on social networking sites and the like. Likewise the methods of supporting an artist has changed, from simply buying their music to seeing them live to buying merchandise and more recently 'liking statuses' on Facebook  these interactions show support but the primary source of support is still buying a bands music and seeing them in concert. Personally I enjoy helping to fund local bands and seeing as many bands live as I can for the experience.

There are always concerns a consumer faces when acquiring music, usually government action such as the disconnection of your internet by your service provider or further legal action. This does deter me from doing certain actions such as illegally torrenting music. Likewise this encourages me to buy music from an artist, similar to how good communication with fans, loyalty and ability to communicate with them in fun and intuitive ways, but on the other hand it is very expensive to pay for music and if there is no loyalty or showmanship towards the audience then the band isn't worth my money  But unlike my family I download music on a daily basis, i'm constantly streaming and listening to my favourite bands and new indie artists, this is mainly due to me growing up surrounded by all this technology unlike my family members. With respect to my friends i may not be as passionate as some of them, music appears to be a greater part of their lives, but I am certain that I consume a significantly similar, whether this be for fun and leisure time, for reminiscences or other reasons I am almost always downloading something at any time. My parents pay for the broadband and they are fully aware of how I acquire all my music because I have to spend money and I never stop complaining about it.