The state of the music industry in 2012

Over the years the music industry has been facing problems since the change from analogue to digital then the birth and growth of the Internet – a form of synergy between the telephone and computer. This change has effected the production and exchange in the media industry concerning media ownerships.

The switch from analogue e.g. vinyl to digital e.g. CD had – for a short term – massively positive effect on the music industry as CD sales skyrocketed, but then had a long term negative. This is because analogue was a type of format that didn’t copy well, as with each copy the quality would get worse and worse from the original, due to ‘noise’ that was picked weakening the quality.  With digital its waves were either 1 or 0, whereas analogue waves were very precise. So with digital it was easy to copy because it was easy to translate the waves, so it produced a better quality. This greatly impacted the music industry as many consumers where buying CDs to replace their old vinyl’s.  However with the birth the Internet and easy copy of the CD, file – sharing came about. Websites like Napstar affected the exchange in the music industry because Napstar allowed people to share files of free. With the shut down of Napstar its 38 million subscribers went to other file sharing websites and the music industry has forever since been trying to get back the consumers.

Media Ownerships, such as the big four, are affected in terms of production and exchange. One of the ‘big four’ for example is EMI, which is a British independent company. It owns 8% of he music market and has artists such as Katy Perry and Coldplay. Media Ownerships face issues in terms of exchange, with file – sharing. A study showed that 61% of 14 – 24 year olds downloaded illegally. This posses as a problem for media ownerships as it is a vast majority of the audience. However, 41% of that 61% download with an intent of buying. Meaning that the t would download those tracks and then go and buy those albums and or singles. That same study showed that illegal downloaders spent more than legal downloaders, with illegal downloads spending about £77 a year, and illegal downloaders £44 a year. Nevertheless, media ownerships still face issues as most of those buyers buy online on iTunes, so artists and their companies see little of that money.

iTunes is under the company of Apple…