& # 8217 ; s: The Future Of The Music Industry Essay, Research Paper

MP3: The Future of the Music Industry

Despite the rumours and hearsay about MP3? s, they are the hereafter of the music industry. The Record Industry Association of America ( RIAA ) has tried to action MP3 hardware and package shapers, like Diamond Multimedia, yet have been unsuccessful. The Internet is altering the manner that instrumentalists can sell their work. In bend, instrumentalists who support MP3? s are non supportive of computing machine buccaneering but have found themselves an effectual mercantile establishment to publicize themselves.

MP3 is a file format that can hive away audio files on a computing machine. They are really little in file size and the vocals sound about perfect. All you need to play these files on your computing machine is an MP3 participant. Anyone with an Internet connexion can download an MP3 participant for free off the Internet. There are many different types of participants that you can download, they all look different but support the same thought. They look and work like a auto stereo for your computing machine. The mean download clip of an MP3 participant on a 56K modem is about one to two hours ; the mean download clip of a vocal on a 56K modem is approximately 15 to thirty proceedingss. It sounds like a batch of clip to blow but it is free music. Many of today? s college campuses offer a free Internet entree to their pupils. Most of those campuses use an Ethernet connexion instead than a 56K modem. In layperson? s footings it means that pupils who are on these Ethernet connexions are ever connected to the Internet and can download files over 100 times faster than a normal 56K modem. Therefore, it merely takes approximately five to ten proceedingss to download a participant and about one to four proceedingss to download a vocal. It is non really surprising that a immense per centum of MP3 users are college pupils, ages 18 to 24.

On campuses that offer Ethernet connexions up to 75 % of pupils are music plagiarists ( Greenfield 58 ) . Besides, that is likely the ground that the per centum of music purchasers who are between the ages of 15 and 24 old ages old has declined from 32.2 % in 1996 to 28 % in 1998 ( Reece ) .

The inquiry at manus is & # 8221 ; Are MP3? s legal? & # 8221 ; The reply is yes and no. Like many engineerings, MP3 can be implemented for both legal and illegal utilizations. It is similar to Zip compaction, common to most computing machine users. Zip files may be used to administer copyrighted stuffs illicitly or for legitimate intents. MP3 users work on the awards system. They can travel to a site and download a vocal that is on the top 20 charts. They are given instructions non to administer the vocal and to wipe out it within 24 to 48 hours. Whether or non they wish to make this is their ain pick. On the other manus, some sets allow MP3 users to maintain and administer their copyrighted stuff. This is a fast and effectual manner to publicize for a set that does non acquire their vocals played on the wireless every twenty-four hours.

MP3 files are leting a whole clump of new instrumentalists to make a world-wide audience without covering with record labels. Today, everybody who has an Internet connexion can hold a web page. Web pages are easy to do and are a great manner to publicize. Sets who have their ain web pages can do their ain MP3? s and set them on their web page for the populace to download for free. Making an MP3 is approximately every bit easy as downloading a participant to hear a downloaded vocal. Anybody who has entree to a computing machine with a CD-ROM thrust can make this. All you need to make is download a plan called Music Match and put in it on your computing machine. Put in the Cadmium that you would wish to do an MP3 of and snap the record button. Then merely sit back and delay while the CD path is encoded in the MP3 format.

This type of engineering is great for little sets that need to do a name for themselves. Many people have given MP3 a bad name because it is frequently associated with music plagiarists, but it is the best manner for the small cats to acquire their music out without paying an arm and a leg to make it. Small creative persons now have a opportunity to be heard that they did non hold before.

After seeing how successful the small sets were, The Beastie Boys went out on a limb and became the first known set to utilize MP3? s. They used MP3? s as an of import portion on their full online scheme. They realized that every music pirating MP3 site had Beastie Boys vocals, and some even had bootlegged versions of unrecorded shows. The Beasties knew that they could non set vocals that had been copyrighted on their site for free to the populace. They came up with an thought to kill two birds with one rock ( Robertson, Beasties ) . They released unrecorded recordings and R

emixes to the populace for free on their official site. This scheme both counters moonshiners and gave Beastie Boys fans a small something that they could non hold gotten anyplace else. The Beasties merely inquire two things from the downloaders ; an electronic mail reference so that they can be mailed newssheets and the populace is asked non to administer the vocals, but to direct people to the Beastie Boys web site.

Since the Beasties immense measure, many other known instrumentalists have followed in their footfalls with administering their music via MP3 on the Internet ( Robertson, Top Tier ) . Including among these instrumentalists are Taylor Dayne, Willie Nelson, The Beach Boys, and The Blues Brothers to call a few. These creative persons are playing the game really smart. They are offering the public their music for free, in bend, people are stating their friends, who check out these sets sites and finally like them. The public gets a sneak extremum at what the set has to offer and if people like it, they have the option to buy ware from the sets. Some sets are even arising against their ain record labels. A stone group, Less Than Jake and the blame group, Public Enemy, have released MP3? s paths off their new albums free of charge to the populace on their web sites. This has, in bend angered their record companies. The public loves the thought that the creative persons are back uping them and non the big record labels.

MP3? s are already altering the music industry. In fact, Diamond Multimedia is in the procedure of making a portable MP3 participant. Robertson says, & # 8220 ; The Rio portable MP3 participant will kick the digital music motion into overdrive & # 8221 ; ( Robertson, Rio Rocks ) . It will non go on overnight, but from the research that I have done I strongly feel that in five to ten old ages MP3? s will be standard that Cadmium? s are today. The public doesn? T want to pay $ 15.99 for their music ; the typical monetary value for a Cadmium. They would instead purchase the portable participant and download the vocals that they would wish off the Internet for free, or for a minimum sum of money. The RIAA has to confront the facts that we as a society are traveling toward a digital age, and we are traveling quickly. The new portable participant will besides come with Music Match package that allows the consumer to easy change over their Cadmium aggregation into MP3? s, hence extinguishing Cadmium? s all together.

Despite the music industries endangering reactions to MP3? s, MP3 has gotten impressive support from users and creative persons likewise. The creative persons realize that it is a great manner to sell themselves to the populace. Over 600 creative persons have signed up with MP3.com ( Robertson, Rio Rocks ) . The RIAA has to understand that the conventional manner that music is sold is over. The lone manner that they will last is to alter with the times. Robertson says that MP3 will hold the impact on the music industry that the copying machine had on the publication industry ( Phillips ) . At first publishing houses could non command what people were copying, and now look, copier machines are in every office today. The hereafter is coming fast ; the lone manner to be prepared for it is to educate yourself about the new engineerings that are on the rise. Ten old ages ago, cipher thought that with a computing machine you could speak to person across the Earth. Look at the advantages that the Internet has given us. With a chink of a mouse you can download a top 20 hit or a aureate oldie. I invite music fans likewise to seek out MP3 and you will recognize that the hereafter is here today with MP3 engineering.

Plants Cited

Greenfield, Karl. & # 8220 ; You? ve Got Music. & # 8221 ; Time 22 February

1999: 58-60

Prince philips, Chuck. & # 8220 ; Web Impresario Posing Threat to Music

Industry. & # 8221 ; ( Los Angeles ) LA Times 4 December 1998.

www.latimes.com/HOME/BUSINESS/UPDATES/lat_biz1204.htm

Reece, Doug. & # 8220 ; RIAA? s Rock Woes. & # 8221 ; 23 March 1999.

www.mp3.com/news/207.html

Robertson, Michael. & # 8220 ; Attempts to Shutdown Pirate MP3 Music

Sites are Backfiring. & # 8221 ; No day of the month avai & # 8212 ; lable.

www.mp3.com/news/025.html

& # 8212 ; . & # 8220 ; Beasties Blast MP3s and Exploit the Net. & # 8221 ; No day of the month

available. www.mp3.com/news/093.html

& # 8212 ; . & # 8220 ; Rio Rocks Music Industry. & # 8221 ; No day of the month available.

www.mp3.com/news/101.html

& # 8212 ; . & # 8220 ; Top Tier Artists Do MP3. & # 8221 ; No day of the month available.

www.mp3.com/news/101.html

& # 8212 ; . & # 8220 ; Why Would an Artist Give Away Free Music? To Make

Money. & # 8221 ; No day of the month available. www.mp3.com/news/029.html

Wolfe, Bill. & # 8220 ; The Basics of MP3. & # 8221 ; ( Louisville ) Louisville

Courier-Journal. 12 March 1999.www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cte630.htm

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