subject: How The Internet Changed The Music – A Focus on The Record Company & The Record Store [print this page] The internet changed the face of the music world, storming in like a hurricane and leaving devastation in its wake. Some argue that the music industry should have seen it coming and adapted sooner, while others say it was a slight touch of arrogance, believing that their business model could not be affected.
Below is a look at how two of the main players in the industry have been affected, positively or negatively, with the introduction of the World Wide Web, and how the internet changed their once so lucrative business model.
(1) Record Company
The internet changed and immensely altered the way in which music is marketed, sold, distributed, and shared. It is a completely different environment to the one that existed 20 years ago.
Technological advancements have meant the death knell for the beloved "CD" with sales of this format diminishing steadily. This means that music downloads (the majority of which are illegal) are here to stay.
Music piracy is the unrelenting challenge facing the music industry today, a problem which they have to face head-on in order to survive.
Technologies such as CD-R's and peer-to-peer file sharing have made life simply impossible for the record labels. The internet changed the speed at which music files can be moved and transferred between people, making it a hopeless case with regards to policing for the music industry at large.
(2)Music Store
The music retailing landscape has utterly been transformed with the advent of the internet. The local independent music stores have been virtually wiped out, leaving behind the big retail chains and supermarkets, to fight it out amongst themselves for the physical market.
The internet changed the business of the traditional music retailer, and was instrumental in the widespread popularity of a new player into the market, namely iTunes.
Today this new entrant has a compete monopoly on the digital music market, accounting for 70% of worldwide online digital music sales, and thus making it the largest legal music retailer overall.
The "brick 'n' mortar" operations have had to look to other products to compensate for the losses being incurred from the decline of the CD, which is a direct consequence of how the internet changed the music business.
Products like games, DVDs, technological accessories, merchandise (t-shirts, books) are all to be found in the music shop, a store which once only consisted of racks upon racks stocked full of CDs - another clear example of how the internet changed the music retailing business.
Don't wait until it's too late get to grips NOW with how the internet can best be put to work for you and your business. Take it step-by-step from the very beginning, and develop your online business strategy from there.
Don't find yourself in a few years from now in a defunct industry, claiming the introduction of the internet changed your business.
How The Internet Changed The Music A Focus on The Record Company & The Record Store
