Introduction

Project Statement

For years now, the music industry has had to deal with the major problem of music piracy, which is due to an increasing accessibility to free music from internet peer-to-peer sharing programs such as Kazaa, Limewire, and Bearshare. Because of this increase in music sharing, the music industry had taken a big hit in terms of revenue and profits. While stricter legal and repercussive measures have been taken in recent years to counter this attack on the industry, music sharing still occurs on a widespread scale.

Screenshot from iTunes Internet-based Music Interface

This project will explore the emergence of more copyright-friendly music-downloading interfaces such as iTunes and Rhapsody as the music business has been evolving into a more internet-oriented industry in a further effort to check and, in a sense, even compete with illegal file-sharing. Seeing that these interfaces are actively growing and being used by a plethora of customers, it appears that the music companies are making progress in bringing in business. Also, with the massive sales increases in mp3 players and the resulting decline in CD player sales, more internet-based music sales have occurred. The project will also note aspects of these interfaces which are being developed to curb illegal downloading and comment on the direction the music industry will take.

 

Hypothesis

Because of the apparent evolution of the music industry’s approach in selling music to its consumers, older media of music like CD’s and vinyl records will, in the future, be generally ignored and more obscured in the market. Examples of such evolution are CD’s overtaking cassette tapes and DVD’s overtaking video cassette tapes. Nevertheless, I imagine it will be unlikely that these media will totally disappear from existence in the market because of their more comprehensive and clear qualities relative to the more abridged and trimmed down qualities of mp3’s. By observing current trends in the music industry, it can be conjectured that the future of the music business will be based on the internet in interfaces like iTunes and Rhapsody.