In the wake of kicking off this new blog, I felt it would only be relevant to talk about the future of music. If you do not know already, the future is very bright in the music business. In the light of this positivity, the power is now in the people/musician’s hands (where it should be!) and the major label power is starting to diminish. The music industry has tried to hold back technology, but the Internet has become an unstoppable force that cannot be contained. You as a consumer no longer have to purchase music because of the various online outlets available for free downloading. In addition, for your information, the RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) has stopped suing individuals for the illegal sharing of copyrighted music. So hopefully this will remain true as millions of songs are being downloaded and shared as we speak.

While the industry regains its composure, the likely outcome to this problem will probably come to this:

Everyone who has running water and electricity in their homes can relate. (hopefully all of you)

These so called “utilities” are payed for monthly and they are at a set price. In order to keep these utilities running, you must keep paying. Well imagine music as these utilities: flowing and waiting to be consumed. This may sound far fetched, but 5 years from now, this may become fact.

Let me explain further:

You will pay a small monthly fee to your ISP provider and in turn, this will allow you to download as much music as you want. (this is the simplified solution) There are obviously other complicated facets to this theory, but we can keep it simple for now.

Labels have already disagreed with this concept (because the industry hates change) and eventually the government will have to intervene like they have in the past. Of course, no one likes to pay for anything unless they have to, but we can’t get away with “stealing” music forever.

For now, downloading illegally works because the artist makes little to no revenue as it is from their music (and if they did, their label would most likely be keeping it anyway). So do the artist a favor and support them by going to their shows and buying merchandise because that is how they make most of their revenue.

Bottom Line:

The industry needs to embrace this change because it is inevitable.

Sources: Mike King, Dave Kusek, and the book The Future of Music