Communications and Media

Music industry and technology have both shared an interesting relationship since history. The sale of sheet music, LPs, CDs and any other technical form of music have brought to much lucrative profits to the music industry. Further still, technologies like cassette, mp3 and even the radio have made it possible to their users to buy more products from the music industry as they keep getting entertained by the same music. It is clear that music transcends generations and so is technology. This implies that as time passes, there are more improvements that are made technologically in the music industry (McLeod, 521). This makes one to conclude that at some point, there is a strong relationship between music industry and technology.

Technology has been seen to influence the music industry in so many ways. Music industry runs from the singing art, the production of music and even the recording industry (McLeod, 523). Technology has made great positive developments in the music industry and continues to influence its development. For instance, Frith identifies that internet technology has enabled artists to virtually make their records. In an interview with the Perfect Sounds Forever (2002), Frith says that it is also possible for one to communicate with the audience in a direct way without the need of a mediator. Frith appreciates that through internet technology one can upload and download music without the need to involve any mediator (Perfect Sound Forever, 2002). Similar views are shared by McLeod where he talks of radio technology promoting music industry. He reflects how music turned out to be an important tool in music promotions (McLeod, p. 524). He demystifies the theory that as many people listen to music freely on the radio, they will not buy it. However, at some point, technology has its negative effects on the music industry too. This specific negative side of technology that has made many to cry fowl is the P2P file sharing capability through the internet. However, McLeod trashes the whole idea and complements on the technology as a tool for reducing production expenses (McLeod, 526). He specifically identifies the cutting of middlemen as one way of reducing the expenses if music production (McLeod, 527). The fact here is that, technology plays a great role in music development.

The origins of the recording industry can be traced back in the 19th century after the First World War (Lull, 55). The most prime commodity in the musical industry by then was the gramophone. It was used in the recording and producing almost all types of music. The gramophone was among the first electrical appliances to be discovered and the technology was low. But with this technological advancement, there have been many developments in the recording industry, something that has greatly transformed the experience on music in the whole world. Definitely, it began with the western countries and slowly technology spread to the entire world. Therefore, singers in the western countries used to take advantage of technology and produce good music out of it. Whereas these western countries used to shine in music, Africa was lagging behind, and the cause of this was lack of technology (Lull, 75).

The history of music can be traced to have gone through three stages. Music was first published in houses called music publishing houses. This is the first stage on the development of music. By this times, sheet music used to be the main and only way of publicize popular music. Technology was not that high at these times and that is the reason for the application of sheet music. Sheet music was simply song lyrics written on paper and distributed to people in form of music (Lull, 73).

Second phase was the production of music in record companies. Thanks to technology, there were improvements to the music industry by the introduction of CDs, LPs, and MP3s. These technologies particularly the invention of compact discs by Sony and Philips in 1980s improved the sound quality, usability ease and resistance to wear (Garofalo, 344). Companies could help singers to record and produce their music with ease and produce music of high quality. This greatly boosted the music industry as the singers could now even be heard in their voices. This encouraged many to come into the music industry thus bringing competition. With competition in place, music experienced great improvement in performance. All these have been made possible by the technological changes that have been taking place over time (Perfect Sound Forever, 2002). The last phase has been made possible by the transitional entertainment corporations. These are the most technically advanced and they have helped music to reach heights that no one thought it could reach. These companies have helped promote music through movie tie-ins, streaming audio on the internet and the recording music for sale. This has helped musicians to fetch a lot of money from their songs which they sell. These companies have also helped in advertising the songs and put them in the market just like any other commodity. Due to technology, music is no longer tied to a single sound carrier (Lull, 75).

Technology has helped a lot in the advancement and promotion of music thus it has led to improvement of the music industry. The evolution of popular music has mainly been aided by technology (Adorno, 437). As technology advances, it has brought with is sound systems that make music more enjoyable to listen to and easier to produce and market. Systems like hi-fi radios, home theaters and others have made a colorful improvement on how often people listen to music. Many and even those who never had a taste in music nowadays are fanatics of music. And to the singers, music has been so easy to make and produce and even earn money from it. It is crystal clear that most of the singers that sing popular music fetch lots of million dollars from that. For this very reason, one can always conclude that technology and music industry are so much intertwined (Perfect Sound Forever, 2002).

However, despite the lucrative businesses technology has brought to the singers, it has also disappointed them at one point or another. It is this same technology that has brought loses upon many musicians. Some local singer have always wondered why it is so difficult to them the make millions of dollars just the same way others do. The answer to this is that once a musician has produced a song, it is posted all over the internet. Fans always know of this and they will download these songs almost for free. This is a disadvantage to the singers as they would have as well sold that music for a lot of money. This is discouraging and it is no wonder why some artist can never grow. They have the effect of technology on them (Perfect Sound Forever, 2002).

As if this is not enough, there are professional thieves who are called music pirates. These are people who check out for the new song releases in the internet, download then, make new many copies of the same and sell them out to the public. This kills the music industry so much. It has been known to be the greatest enemy of music industry as it has discouraged many to quit singing as they barely see any benefits apart from being famous. Music has been affected so much by this and the blame goes to technology (Perfect Sound Forever, 2002).

There has been this argument about what is likely to happen to the music industry as technology advances day by day. It is clear that one of the most important changes and difficulties facing singers now is the thought of having the capacity to produce and sell as much recorded music as possible. This is the only business the singers do and it is clear that by the existing technology, it is really threatened. The sale of CDs has fallen to half what used to sell during the period it was at the peaks and it still keeps falling. The fact that one can easily make money by producing songs, recording and selling the music does no longer exist. This is one disadvantage that is really facing the music industry and the cause of it is technology. The future of music industry is really shadowed by many facts. With the growing technology, one can get a sound track of a song that has just been produced right in his or her bedroom immediately after its release. From cable televisions or even satellites, many have found it easy to have the kind of music they want anytime they want it. This is bad news to singers since there business, the only business has no future (Perfect Sound Forever, 2002). Before the advancement of technology, artists used to fetch a lot of cash from the sale of recordings, performances in parties and in live concerts. But that used to happen many years ago, and what we have now in a music industry where singers sing for charity. The only thing they earn is a name and fame. All they do is entertain people because even the live concerts nowadays are aired on televisions. Almost all homes even those of the poor have televisions and thus they access the new music in the industry (Garofalo, 345).

The only way to save the music industry is an obligation and initiative of the singers to record songs that are outrageously outstanding. Songs that everyone could really with to have a copy in the house and can listen to whenever he or she wants to. This can be done if the singers do enough practice, write songs that are just perfect, be performers who have a sense of humor. Songs that are wonderful and amazing do not miss in the libraries of individuals because that is what most people focus on when buying a CD or even a cassette. If the song is just too ordinary, no one will purchase it because the will be aired on television anyway (Garofalo, 345).

In conclusion, the fate of the music industry really lies on the technological advancement in the society. But the technology is not going to wait for musicians to fetch money then it advances later in the day. It advances by each day, and at least every day there is a new thing that is invented about technology. Unless the singers embrace their talents and produce perfect music, then the fate of the music industry will be worse that it is now. This calls for the singers to take initiative and work extra harder on their music. The basic idea here is, technology has really helped music industry to grow significantly, but this is not enough, the damage and losses it is causing today is so immense till its merits are being overlooked. Music has come a long way and all this is due to technology, it is not the technology that is raping artists of their money, but it is the people who use that technology. We should not put the full blame on technology in fact it has done its part in improving the music industry. Therefore, all the thanks go to technology, for improving the music industry and life in general.