In Part II of the series, I write about 4 major technologies of the Digital Age that influenced the Music Industry and have contributed greatly to the formation of the Industry as we know it today.

Tapes and CDS

Starting things off for the second part are tapes and CDs. They may seem old school now, but when tapes were introduced back in the early 1980s, there were real concerns regarding home taping of songs taking a big bite out of sales.

However, Tapes were soon rendered somewhat redundant with the introduction of CDs. They could be read via laser heads and played on portable disk drives. After years of dominating the market, CDs themselves were relegated to nostalgia as the Digital Age progressed into the 21st Century.

MP3

What was probably the biggest paradigm shift the Industry had seen, the MP3 presented the greatest challenge ever to the legacy music industry by democratizing the distribution of digital music. Almost immediately, it seemed, music became free, and downloading and file-sharing — two early harbingers of decentralization — were at the fingertips of anyone with a computer and a dial-up modem.

MP3 was revolutionary on its impact and the way people started perceiving music. The audiences rose, artists reached new heights of global fame and people discovered new sounds from around the world. MP3 was the first form of digitization and the first step towards the modern music industry.

Walkman/iPod

In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman to the world, a one of a kind, portable cassette player that offered its users portability and privacy. It was the first device that offered listeners the option to retreat into their own small world of music and put personal enjoyment above social interaction.

Steve Jobs’ iPod in 2001 built upon the idea of the Walkman, offering a means to listen to MP3 music on the go. It had a massive role to play in the enormous growth of MP3 and forced many record labels to accept digital distribution as the way forward. Of course, this led to massive revenue cuts, a loss from which many record labels are still recovering. This was one innovation the whole music industry struggled to keep up with, and created an almost instantaneous revolution with technology that was readily available.

Streaming

The most popular mode of listening to music currently, streaming platforms like Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Music, and Gaana. For listeners, streaming platforms present the ultimate choice in terms of accessibility with millions of tracks at our fingertips. However, the streaming model has its downsides.

Artist revenues have decreased with most of the streaming services offering music free to the audiences. With artists earning less than a cent per listen, the business model intrinsic to streaming is more focused on the listener than the creator. However, it does have very visible benefits, and its popularity doesn’t seem to be dying out anytime soon.

An honourable mention must go to DAWs, or Digital Audio Workstations, such as FL Studio and Abelton Live. These software have brought the studio into the bedrooms of anyone who has a laptop and knows their way around a computer. DAWs have allowed professional artists to flourish, they’ve given a massive boost to the EDM genre and have increased the number of artists by a thousandfold. Underestimating their importance in today’s music industry would not be doing justice to them.

The Music Industry is one that has always faced challenges. With a plethora of new technologies around the corner, with Blockchain being touted as the next major game-changer in the industry, it is interesting to see where the industry goes from here.

I hope you enjoyed this two-part deep dive into the 9 Technologies I believe have shaped the music industry and have formed it into what we know of it as today. I look forward to hearing your views on it!