The beat goes on: The future of the digital music revolution

We have seen that, generally speaking, the music industry is slow to embrace new music formats. Radio allowed people to listen to music for free without having to buy a record, cassette tapes allowed listeners to copy tapes or record songs directly from the radio, CD burners allowed us to make high-quality copies of our favorite songs and albums, and digital music online allowed us to share and swap files, which increased music piracy considerably. With all of these technological advancements, the music industry has voiced concern over illegal copying of music effecting its profits. So no matter what direction the music industry takes in the future, chances are the record labels will be unhappy about it.

But what will the future of music be? It's impossible to know for sure, but here are some predictions:

1. Digital music formats will continue to dominate the industry. Because digital music sales have been so incredibly popular, it is unlikely that we will see a shift from the online distribution of music anytime soon. The music industry is generally slow to adapt to new technology, so once it fully embraces iTunes and other online distributors, it will be a long time before we see another format dominate the industry.

2. Digital music will become even more mobile. With the wide availability of wireless Internet access, digital music players will have the ability to download songs. Right now, iPod users have to download songs on their computer and then upload them to their iPod. Future generations of the iPod will no doubt include wireless access so that users can browse and purchase music from the iTunes Store anywhere. This technology would also allow users to wirelessly network to their computers to download or upload files without having to connect through the computer's USB port.

3. Convergence will continue. The popularity of games like "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" has shown us that video gamers are crazy about music, and that the music industry can work with other industries to distribute music. This is a trend that we will likely see continue in the future. With digital TV, the music industry could work with TV producers to include information about particular songs that appear in TV shows and commercials so that viewers can find and download them. Viewers could eventually download music directly from their televisions and upload them to their iPods or computers.

4. The decline of iTunes. Right now, Apple's dominance on the digital music industry is unparalleled. But that could change. So far, Apple has been quick to adapt to an industry that is rapidly changing. However, unless they stop distributing music with DRM, a large part of their loyal customers could switch to another music company that doesn't include these protections.

5. The continuation of music piracy. While the RIAA has gone after companies like Napster and private individuals like college students, piracy and peer-to-peer file sharing will continue in the future. While programs like iTunes include DRM to make it harder to pirate music, there are always those who use technology to try and break these safeguards, and eventually they will succeed. And chances are, just like piracy in the past, it will have little or no effect on the music industry as whole.

No matter what the future brings, we can be sure that the digital music revolution will continue well into the future.

Some bands still not embracing the Revolution

When the media talks about bands who aren't making their music available for sale online, they are usually talking about the biggest hold-outs of them all: The Beatles. But they aren't the only ones who aren't embracing iTunes. According to Reuters, both AC/DC and Kid Rock decided not to sell their latest albums on-line.

However, their reasoning was different that The Beatles'. One of the features that many people love about iTunes is the ability to download single songs without having to buy the whole album. This feature is exactly what AC/DC and Kid Rock wanted to avoid. The wanted to force their fans to buy the entire album, not just one or two songs. Clearly, the reason behind this is money. The bands are afraid that if their fans can download one or two songs for 99 cents each, then they won't buy the entire album and their record sales will drop. And their plan seemed to work. Kid Rock's album, "Rock N Roll Jesus" was the third best selling album of the year, and AC/DC's "Black Ice" was the fourth.

But why are these big acts so worried about record sales in the first place? For big-name bands with a large fan base like AC/DC and Kid Rock, most of their profit comes from touring and ticket sales, not from album sales. Most of the money made from selling albums goes to the record label. So these bands must see their music, not as a collection of songs, but an entire work of art. If a person wants to listen to just one song off of an album, they won't truly understand the band's entire message.

And this leads us back to the Beatles. They were the first band that truly looked at the album as an entire work of art. Their revolutionary album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," released in 1967 was one of the first concept albums, and it changed music history. Songs ran together without a clear ending and in order to appreciate the album, a listener had to listen to the entire album from beginning to end. This type of album doesn't translate well into individual songs, unless the user is forced to buy the entire album, and iTunes only allows this on the rarest of occasions.

So while the Internet may be good for some bands who release only singles and not concept albums, there are other bands, like the Beatles and AC/DC who feel that their albums should be listened to in their entirety or not at all, who feel that the revolution isn't necessarily a good thing.

iTunes's potential downfall

There are dozens of reasons to dislike iTunes. The newest versions run slowly and use a lot of a computer's memory, there are oftentimes connection problems with the iTunes store, and it sometimes freezes and shuts down. But one of the biggest complaints about the digital media giant is that the music available through iTunes includes DRM, or digital rights management. DRM restricts the user from playing a protected file on certian devices and is what allows iTunes to limit a file to being on only five computers. And it is a major problem for music fans who use iTunes to get their music, but want to play it on a device other than an iPod.

According to this article by Iain Laing, Amazon recently started distributing music without DRM in Britain. This could signal the end of Apple's dominance of the digital music industry. People will no longer be limited to the number of times they can burn a particular file onto a CD or how many devices they are allowed to play the file on. They can even play files on any MP3 player.

But Apple is smart, and while Amazon has tried to take advantage of one of it's weaknesses, we will probably not see the end of Apple's online music dominance anytime soon. Apple has such a huge share of the market, and current, devoted iTunes users will be unlikely to switch to another service anytime soon. iPods are also incredibly popular, and since one of the biggest complaints about Apple's DRM is that it doesn't allow playback on anything other than an iPod, this argument doesn't effect very many iTunes users.

iTunes will likely be able to weather Amazon's recent development, but it is a sign that there are changes in the distribution of digital music, and that Apple may not be king for ever.

No need to leave home

As Bujega mentions in his book, "The Interpersonal Divide," the purpose of a home is changing thanks to digital technology. Instead of being a place of solitude to get away from the outside world, the home is becoming a connection or portal to the outside world. We go home to check e-mail, instant message, check Facebook or Myspace, and to buy music. Bujega argues that this is not necessarily a good thing, and in terms of social and interpersonal uses of the Internet, I agree. But the role that digital technology has played in music distribution has been been mostly positive.

The biggest advantage to buying music online is the amount and variety available. At my local Best Buy store, the biggest section of music is pop/rock. This is a little inconvenient for me, as I listen to a lot of blues. Best Buy does have a blues section, but it is very small. I can get a much better selection of blues music through iTunes, and I can get it without having to leave my bed room.

And the same holds true for digital movies and videos. There are movies available on iTunes that I am sure I would be unable to find at any brick-and-mortar store in Fargo. And while the movies sold through iTunes don't come with the special features and deleted scenes like DVDs do, it is often worth it not to have to go to the video store, which may not even have the title you're looking for.

So while digital technology may be increasing the interpersonal divide through tools like e-mail and instant messaging, it has also been used to increase exposure to music and videos that people would be otherwise unable to get. Bugeja could make the argument that if you are buying music and video online, you are missing out on connecting interpersonally with the cashier, but that is a relationship I am willing to let suffer in the name of more music and movie variety.

Pandora no more: The end of a digital music pioneer

For music lovers Pandora.com offers the best of digital music. Pandora is an Internet radio site that allows users to create their own radio stations and listen to music for free without listening to advertisements. The site is incredibly popular, and users can even listen to their stations on their iPhones, eliminating the need to be near a computer. This, of course, had lead to copyright concerns and questions about whether or not royalties need to be paid to the artists represented on Pandora. According to this article from MercuryNews.com, a judge has ruled that the site must pay royalties to 70 percent of the artists on the popular site. This of course could force Pandora to shut down for good.

This is the latest battle in the digital music copyright wars, and we could have predicted the outcome long ago based on the Napster and RIAA lawsuits. However, while Pandora is the most recent free music innovation to be potentially shut down, there will no doubt be other new technologies to circumvent current copyright laws to allow free access to music.

The current popular means of getting free music is through a service called Bit Torrent. Currently, bootlegs of concerts and other hard to find materials appear on the site, while relatively little actual albums appear. This could be the reason that Bit Torrent has remained relatively untouched by the RIAA. However, because the service is essentially a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol, we can assume that this too will be shut down before too long.

While the future of Pandora and Bit Torrent remain uncertain, it is a reasonable guess that both will be forced to shut down in the near future. But the "free culture" of the Internet can almost guarantee us that somebody is currently working on a new way to distribute free music.

The "interpersonal divide" and digital music

It is possible to spend hours and hours browsing iTunes. I know because I have done it. The iTunes store allows you to see what else other people who have looked at a particular album have bought, and provides links to other artists that you may enjoy. It is possible to get totally immersed in iTunes just by clicking links to new artists that you may never have heard of previously. Before you know it, the entire afternoon has slipped by. Micheal Bugeja, author of Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a Technological Age, would argue that this is a negative aspect of the digital music revolution. Rather than spending time interacting with other human beings, we are spending more and more time browsing virtual record libraries on iTunes. He would argue that this total immersion in the digital world erodes our interpersonal relationships.

While it is certainly true that we are spending more time on-line, I take a more optimistic view towards digital technology than Bugeja. iTunes has allowed me to explore a larger number of artists than I would have been exposed if I didn't have Internet access. I am a fan of blues and jazz music, and through iTunes I have discovered artists like Buddy Guy, John Scofield and Susan Tedeschi. I have also downloaded classical music such as Mozart's "Requiem" and the complete Beethoven Symphonies. Many of these artists would be unavailable to me through a traditional brick-and-mortar music store. The argument could be made that digital music has allowed me to expand my cultural awareness.

In addition to expanding my musical horizons, digital music has allowed me to better relate with my friends when we do meet face-to-face. I met one of my best friends because we share a love of blues music, and I "discovered" the blues through iTunes, so contrary to Bugeja's assertion, digital technology has actually increased and enhanced my interpersonal relationships.

Not only has iTunes expanded my musical horizons, but it has actually helped my interaction with others. I met one of my best friends because we both share a love for blues music, and I "discovered" the blues through iTunes. So, contrary to Bugeja's assertion, digital technology has actually help me to forge new relationships rather than aid in the decline of them.

In my previous post I discussed the resurgence of vinyl records. Often times, these records are purchased at traditional record stores. These stores serve as a meeting place, not only for music enthusiasts, but for lovers as vinyl as well. They provide a place where these fans of analog records can discuss the benefits of vinyl over CDs or MP3s. But according to Bugeja, this type of interaction will dwindle in in the future due to the increasing popularity of digital technology. Hopefully other have found the same benefits in digital music that I have, and Bugeja's theory will remain just that - a theory.

The argument against digital music: vinyl makes a comeback

While it seems that the majority of the consumers purchasing music these days believe that digital music is far superior to analog, there is a growing demand for the vinyl records from yesteryear, as this article from The Free Press Online reports. These traditionalist audiophiles believe that many of the classic albums were meant to be heard on old 33s or 88s, and because they were recorded for vinyl, they actually sound better in that format rather than on a CD or MP3. Best Buy even has a vinyl section now. This is counter intuitive given the fact that the digital format has dominated nearly every other form of media.

Part of vinyl's new-found popularity no doubt comes from nostalgic baby-boomers. Records were first marketed to teenagers in the mid and late fifties, when record producers recognized that for the first time, many teenagers now had a disposable income. This led to an entirely new segment of the population that remained untapped, and opened the door for teen-idols like Elvis, Buddy Holly and Little Richard. Those teens feel emotionally attached to vinyl records, and have generated enough demand for the medium that retailers are beginning to carry the records again.

There's no way to tell if this is just a trend, or if the popularity of vinyl records will continue in an increasingly digital age. But one thing is for sure: Many local record stores are experiencing a surge in sales, and have no plans of shutting their doors anytime soon.

Check out this short video about how the vinyl revival is effecting EMI's former record-pressing facility: