Synopsis

There has been a serious fluctuation in the music industry in the last couple of decades. One of the most prevalent reasons is because of the digital world. In my final research paper, "The Digital World's Effect on the Music Industry," I discuss various points that effect the music industry.

Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest factors that influenced sales was with the increase of music piracy. Now that music is on the internet, it is way easier to upload and download pirated content. Musicians are losing a lot of their earnings because of this. Peer-to-peer websites are still used by consumers that want to "own" the music, even with the access to free music from the streaming services. Streaming services are slightly ebbing this extreme curvature, but the musicians still aren't earning the full value from their music because now they have to use music aggregators (the middleman). Some musicians are trying to get rid of this "middleman." This is called disintermediation, when the artist has a direct line to their consumers.

Another effect on the industry is that people can now unbundle their purchases. This means that they can purchase a single song from an album if they wanted to (e.g. iTunes). We now have the capability to purchase one episode from a TV series if we wanted to.

With the emergence of the the digital world, fans and musicians are closer than ever. There has always been a connection between people through music, but it's even closer now because sharing music and culture is easier than ever. Musicians can even connect through social media, as many fans have taken advantage of sites like Twitter and Facebook, and even Snapchat.

The music industry is on the verge of evolution. Music will never die, it will just keep changing with the times as it always has done.