The world of music has undergone unprecedented change. The way music is composed, the recording systems, the record production and finally the listening technology; virtually everything has changed. Gone are the days when you would sit beside your gramophone or boom box or stereo and listen music. Also gone are the days of the tape walkman and CD walkman. Walkman, which was once considered a breakthrough technology in music industry is fast getting obsolete. Digital music and digital storage is the latest way to enjoy music. If you don't have an IPod you are probably out of fashion or you don't like music. If you don't understand terms like Pod cast, you are lagging behind the trend. The cool thing this days is to move around everywhere wearing those white earphones of IPod. The days of CD and tapes are becoming past. Terms like play lists, shuffle are the latest terms heard from any music lover.
While the IPod initially launched a string of protests from music industry representatives who believed that the mp3 downloads would kill the recording industry by distributing illegal copies of songs on the web, its clear today that legal mp3 downloads can easily coexist with the traditional CD’s sold in record bars.
The amount of music produced this days has gone up by record percentages. A variety of music composers, singers, lyric writers are around churning out a huge number of listening options every week. Also the average "life" of a song has gone down. For example, a popular song in past would be heard around on radio and television for months long. But now most songs are broadcast or telecast for few weeks only. This is because people need variety and the music producers are smart enough to release new albums virtually every week. Plus, the age of an average of a music lover indicates that most of them are school or university going students. This is an audience with comparatively lower buying power. Hence, the need of hour is to continuously produce and release new music at lower prices.
Selling music online is cheaper then producing CDs. Also internet is also an excellent medium of promoting new artists. This has resulted in a win-win situation for music producers i.e. record companies, companies like Apple (IPod maker) and the music buyer. Today, they use free music downloads that let them sample an album or the style of a particular artist. These legal and latest mp3 downloads actually encourage or promote album sales, especially if the record company includes bonus features or tracks, or limited-edition booklets, in the CD or DVD.
Another example of downloading mp3 music are the new artists who are yet to make their mark in the music and entertainment industry. No record company would bet big on a new artist or group. All these music creators have found Internet as an alternative option. They can easily build a new website, sign up a few affiliates, run a small budget online and/or offline marketing campaign and offer their creation online for free or paid download.
But whatever the reason, the people who most benefit from the increase of free music downloads are the listeners themselves, who can enjoy the music on even the tightest and most stringent of student budgets. They can even make their own album—upload it on the web—and exercise their creative self-expression (and their dreams of being a rock star) while still taking a sensible course like, say, Finance and Investment. Now that’s something to write home about.