Impact Of Internet Development On Music And Its Technology

Answer :

Introduction:

          Internet Development in the general context is referred to overall growth and development in the society as in terms of people, knowledge, and technology. The internet development has enhanced the growth in the culture, and even has lead to the entire global economic growth. The internet development has been rapidly seen across the various industries and especially in all the areas of technology. The music industry has seen drastic changes due to the development of the internet made over decades. The advancement in the technology formed by the internet has resulted in both pros and cons for the industry. In this assignment, the analysis of the developments made on the internet and its various impacts on the industry has been discussed. Further, the reviews of the methods of that are applicable in the distribution and the evaluation and the improvements made for the same is mentioned. 

4.1 Analysis of internet developments and its impact on music and its technology: 

The entire music industry has seen over decades tremendous changes made due to the rapid usage of internet done by the society. The industry itself has reported countless benefits it has gained from the massive development on the internet. In addition to the benefits, there are some threats that evolved for the industry too.

The music industry with the help of the internet is able to make advancement in its technologies used. Earlier the industry was dominated by the handful of sellers and producers that altogether formed oligopoly market. Thus, through the internet various independent artists were able to enter in the industry.  The artists were able to showcase their work talent through "YouTube", and with the help of various sites. The artists got an appreciation for their work, talent and thus the industry structure changed and evolved too many people rather than just concentrated to only a few (Borja, Dieringer & Daw, 2015).

The distribution methods followed by the industry were time-consuming and expensive. The recording of the music also included huge pricing and heavy capital was required for the same. Thus, only the masters or the big industrialists were able to make music, name, and fame. The artists which were not been launched by the music producers or with any help of the industrialists were also able to easily launch themselves with the limited capital. The independent artists further did not need even need to share their profits for their work along with any of the corporate or the big brand labels.  They were able to create their own fan following, name, and fame which every artist in the industry (Liew, K. K., & Chan, 2013).

    As said, there are pros and cons for everything. Thus, the internet also bought some of the threats for the industry. The business for the industry has seen a fall in the sales of the DVD's, CD's were rapidly dropped. As the music was easily available and accessible over the internet at free of cost for all the consumers. Even if some of the music was not available for free the charges for the same was very economical made through various sites. Therefore, with the drop in the sale of the DVD's, CD's leads to a direct drop in the income of artists. The revenues of the corporate houses got badly affected. The practice of the piracy even got adopted by many (Gamble, & Gilmore, 2013). 

4.2 Review of the methods applied in the distribution of music:

 As with boom of the technology and the internet, the music distribution now a day is done with the help of these only. The music distribution done through the internet is commonly referred as the digital distribution of the music. The distribution of the music through the internet is done through various means such as the direct label, online retail, digital downloads, web pages etc. 

            Bourner, Rospigliosi & Heath, (2016) have mentioned that the commercials even came with the launch of the online music stores in which the music of all kinds was easily available at cheap rates to the listeners. The success of these stores was also a challenge as the audiences get the same music at free of cost from other sites by just a few mouse clicks made by them. However, the commercials such as the Apple with its launch of I Tune store experienced success. As the company even followed the pricing strategy, which was the major reason behind its success. Further, the company even offered a major chunk of all kinds of music to the listeners both audio and video easily. The users find the online stores very useful as the time saved was a major achievement. Even the upgraded quality provided by the stores was as per the desire of the users. 

        Apart from the online stores, the music is distributed over the internet through various websites. These websites included both the online and offline sale of the music. The offline sale includes the promotion and sale of the CDs and DVDs. On these websites the consumers those who wish to buy the any of the desired CD or DVD can easily purchase online which eventually save their time of visiting the store (Liew, K. K., & Chan, 2013).

        In addition with the distribution channels, there are plentiful options that are available and accessible for the artists especially those who independently wish to launch themselves. With the help of these types of websites such as Distrokid, cd Baby the artists are easily able to launch their albums or the songs at a cheaper rate and create a huge fan following at a short time span.                  The websites don’t charge commissions from the artists or even if they do they only charge a minimal amount especially in context with those charged by the big labels (Choi, & Burnes, 2013).

    Thus with the help of the internet, the entire music distribution is done with a rapid speed in comparison with the old methods followed earlier. In addition with the time consuming, the music distribution even was able to make up a quality as their standardization. As in the help of the advanced technology the quality of the music provided is up to the mark for both the consumers and the companies. The practice of the piracy is also minimal. 

         In addition to all the promotional and marketing benefits that the music industry experienced through the internet as its distribution channel, was the evolution of artists altogether across the globe. The artist was able to know each other widely across the globe and many for their profits even came up with their combined music's which is widely accepted and loved by the fans as commonly referred as fusion, duo, a flavor of two nations etc. 

4.3 Evaluation and improvements:

   In the music industry, there are abundant advances and enhancement made in the format and the recording files used on the daily basis. Some of the most widely used formats are: 

WAV: It refers to the Waveform formatting which basically includes the formatting done on the audio file. In normal layman terms, the WAV is nothing apart from the storage house of Windows for all the audio formats done. It enables the PCM encoding and the compressed audio files usage. 

AIFF:  This is another type of formatting which is commonly used by the experts. The advanced versions of the same are referred as AIFF-C, Apple Loops, and the Logic Audio. All the files function like wrappers suitable for both windows and systems of Mac. 

MP3:  The recreation in this type of format was the quality of the sounds data with efficiency. Further, all the devices were able to read and play the files easily (Bustinza et al. 2013).

FLAC: It was a major advancement in the field of technology as the original file was easily compressed without the loss of any data. It got support from the majority of the programs and almost all sort of devices. It became an alternative source for the users in place with the MP3 and even the audio in form of the CD. It even comprises of all of the open sources and with the advantage of the format free from the royalty. Thus, the format was considered free from the constraints made all through especially the property (Padilla et al. 2014).

Lossless Compression: This format was capable of reducing the loss without any loss of the original file from the source. Apart from the original source, there was neither loss of any file from the resulting file done. The file size used in this format range varies from the normally 2x to 5 xs.

Conclusion: 

       In this entire assignment, the advancement of the internet and its impact on the music and the entire industry is been stated. Firstly, the analysis of the developments done on the internet and the impact of the same on music and technology is stated. Further, in the assignment, the various distribution channels of the music industry that are been followed over the internet is helpful. Lastly, it is concluded that the various types of the advancements and improvements that are made especially in the files and the types of the formats used by the music industry.