Technology’s Effects on Modern Day Music

By: Nick Vinci

Advances in Music

•  1877 – Phonograph invented •  1898 – 1st vinyl record produced

•  1906 – 1st music played on radio •  1962 – Cassette Tape introduced

•  1979 – Sony introduced the Walkman •  1982 – Invention of the CD

•  2000 – Portable MP3 players became popular

How Did This Affect Music?

•  Music became more accessible •  Concerts weren’t the only way to listen to music anymore •  With Phonograph, could listen to music from comfort of home

•  Music became portable •  Walkman allowed people to listen on the go

•  Cassettes and CDs were much smaller than Vinyl Records

In the Past 15 Years…

2000 – Napster is used as main source to share/listen to music thanks to invention of the mp3

2001 – Napster shuts down and iTunes is created, taking over the mp3 market

2003 – Apple creates the iTunes Store

2010 – Shazam becomes popular method to finding music

2011 – Spotify launches in the U.S.

2012 – Spotify doubles in users (10m ! 20m)

2015 – Apple releases Apple Music to compete with Spotify

The 21st Century

•  While not as many changes in the physical form of music, major shifts in the way users access and listen to music

What Changed?

•  Mp3 changed the way users listened to music •  Could listen to a single song instead of the whole album

•  “One-Hit-Wonders”

•  Apple capitalized on mp3 •  Took over music industry with Apple products and iTunes store

•  Spotify introduced music streaming •  Monthly cost for unlimited music

•  So much new music being released, users did not want to buy each song

•  Brought back trend of listening to whole album

Music Streaming

• Listen to any song, anytime • Allows smaller artists to

reach users • Explore more music • Premade playlists; user

friendly

• Artists don’t get paid as well

• Not as extensive library as iTunes

• Don’t own music

Success of Streaming

Spotify •  Approx. 75 million

users

•  Over 12 billion hours of music streamed

•  1.5 billion playlists

•  Over 30 million songs available

Pandora •  Approx. 81.5

million users

•  Over 1 million songs available

•  $290.8 million in revenue during 2014

Apple Music •  Approx. 15 million

users since debut in late June

•  2015 projected sales of $360 million in streaming revenue

Source: http://expandedramblings.com

Record Labels

•  With the rise of music streaming, record labels have changed the way they track and record the success of their artists’ music •  iTunes used to be the main source •  Now have Spotify, Shazam, Pandora, YouTube, etc.

•  A wide variety of sources to access music allow for more insight •  Shazam shows where users are unfamiliar with song •  YouTube can track popularity of music videos

Personal Experience

•  This summer I interned for RCA Records, a branch of Sony Music, in their radio promotion department

•  What did I do? •  Tracked radio popularity and correlation to

sales/streaming

•  Compared cities’ radio popularity to Shazam popularity

•  Tracked album sales and music video views

Personal Conclusions

•  It has become much harder to determine a #1 song •  Variety of services, each with own list of top songs

•  Different ways to measure success of song (downloads, views, album sales)

•  It is much easier to track what factors are contributing to success or lack thereof for each song •  Not popular on Shazam ! well known artists

•  New music video dropped ! rise in YouTube views

Overall Conclusions

•  The Music Industry is constantly changing with the evolution of technology and vise versa

•  Finding the perfect balance between supporting artists and delivering music to users is one of the biggest issues of today

•  Users tastes are constantly changing, contributing to the popularity of access to any song, anytime; desire to explore

•  The wide variety of services available has contributed to a spike in the popularity of music

Works Cited

"Can the Music Industry Survive the Streaming Revolution?" PBS. PBS, 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

"DMR." DMR. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

Mick, Jason. "Apple Music: The Money, The Launch Hiccups, and the Nitty Gritty Details." DailyTech. 30 June 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.