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New Media Technology pushes the development of music

        Music is something that all human beings are familiar with. It is also a part of us which is inseparable from us. If someone says he (or she) have not listened to the music before, then it is a pity, no doubt about that. People like music because of the rhymes and the beats that can change their emotion and mood at the moment. Sometime they may even shake their bodies as the music is playing. Then where do most of people get the music from? In present days, a majority of people download the music or get the music from internet. In this situation, media technologies really help to spread the music. But as illegal downloading gains popularity, people will use the method instead of buying the album at store. Despite media technologies will reveal the negative effects such as illegal downloading, yet it will still push the development of the music and bring music into our lives in exciting new ways.

Media can extend the methods of spreading music, such as internet, Bloggers, Facebook and You Tube. Before media took main control of the society, music spreads only through recording company or street artists. As people know, music came with the album by that period of time. Buying an album is the only opt that people would hear music. The second way to spread is from street musicians, they sing the songs on the streets so people can hear it. However the music they produce does not last long.

Yet with media, everything changes. In nowadays, a majority of people are using internet. It is easy, fast and convenient. Basically internet is a connection between computers, also that means the connection between human beings. In that way, music can broadcast from each computer by means of internet. That saves money too, people do not have to spend lots of money on the albums any more. Facebook also can spread music, if someone post a music video on the wall, then the friends of him (or her) will watch it. Probably they are going to share it, so more people will get to know. Since the Facebook became the largest social network in the world. According to the traffic data examined by Cosenza, “Facebook is first rate in 126 out of the 137 countries that were analyzed. Europe is the largest continent on Facebook with 232 million users, while North America has 222 million and the whole of Asia boasts 219 million users” (Wauters). By that information we can tell how fast music spread under the effect of face book. Bloggers are identical to face book, is a social network too. Personal webpages are other choices of spreading music. People post on it, people listen to it. For instance, one of my friends on Facebook who named Dogt Pent, his personal home page has many songs for people to listen. Also the fans can subscribe to his public post. It follows the same pattern as other social networks. Downloading music from internet is the most popular way to get music. “There are 95 percent of all music downloads had been made in 2007” (Adam). It is about 48 billion of people doing downloads. Why do like people like downloading so much? Well first through downloading, they can save the songs into computer then shift it to ipod or something like that. And secondly, it is totally free. It might be the most important reason.

With media technologies, musicians also would broadcast their music without signing any record corporations. As I mentioned above that the two methods to spread the music are being street musicians and entering music producing corporations. Let’s talk about record company for a while there, making contact with recording company is not easy. They get to pick the singers. According to the requirements of “Rock Record”, one of the most significant recording companies in China, they want the singers to be taller than 170 cm if you are male and 158 cm for the females. Furthermore, you must have a nice voice therefore, the appearance has to be good looking and they want to see if you have the potential to be a star or not (Rock Record). It is pretty much like a one way traffic. Unless someone is really talented. Being a street musician is even harder. In fact, anyone can be a street musician, but not everyone can be successful. Imagine that, the musicians have to stand in the cold when the winter comes, and sing the songs that may have a possibility of no audience. Isn’t that heart breaking thing? Yes, of course. Even though somebody is really famous and outstanding on the street; even though he (or she) drugs a majority of people’s attention, who will really come to the same place just for hearing the songs every day? That is not guaranteed. Because people want the songs that can last forever, which means they could hear whenever they want. And that is what media exactly provide for people and musicians. Musicians could post the songs or links on their own home pages, or out it on You Tube. Since most of people went on You Tube watching video out there, people started the put stuff frequently. Lil Crazed, one of the most famous hip-hop singers on the You Tube, he has about over one hundred and eight thousand fans. Every single videos that he posts is about to have hundreds of subscribes. Thereby, this is the way to reach the public through You Tube. If musicians are creating music, they can get it online and see what the public thinks about it ( Feldman). Also musicians are be able to start a string with their music, so that when they post new songs on there, the people who are interested in your music can follow. Instead of signing a recording company, posting on the You Tube or web will be widely broadcast too, if it is good.

New Media technology does not only benefit the musicians, also benefits the fans. The reason why to spread the music is in order to let the fans and people hear it. Therefore fans are an important part of the spreading chain. The article “Social Media’s Effect on the Music Industry” by Kevin Burns reveals that fans could get the information about the singers from the internet. Even more, they will know that is the upcoming events or the date of the concert ( Burns ). The websites are great vehicles for marketing because bands, singers can advertise their concerts, promote their music and reach out to their diehard fans. So in other words, it promotes the interflow between fans, singles and bands. Fans will definitely love that.

Although media technologies push the spreading of the music, but it can still have negative impacts. Check out the picture under the article which is called “The Effect of Social Media on Music” by Jackie Peters. It talks about the relations between album selling and digital purchasing. “In nowadays, more people are using digital purchasing or free downloading, so the digital purchases climbs frequently” ( Peters ). That means large amount of people tends to buy one or two songs rather that a whole album, and also download free music. This will make record company or musicians go bankrupt. If they go down, then no one is going to create the music any more. As the pattern continues, the whole music spreading and producing chain will collapse. So what I suggest is do not leak the songs before is actually published. Let the people buy the album first then post or publish them on the internet.

Even though free downloading and digital purchasing had became a crucial issue, however media brings more advantages than disadvantages. Media technology is the major factor that pushes the music into an evolution. People could not be listening to the songs from ipod without impact of media. As a result, music cannot be separated from new media technology.

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Works Cited

Adams, Sean. "95% of Music Downloads in 2008 Were Illegal - DiS Reacts and Suggests Two Solutions." Drownedinsound.com. N.p., 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.

 Burns, Kevin. "Social Media’s Effect on the Music Industry." Wpromote.com. N.p., 26 July 2010. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.

Feldman, Barbara J. "YouTube: What Is It and Why Use It?" Surfnetkids.com. N.p., 15 Oct. 2007. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.

Peters, Jackie. "The Effect of Social Media on Music." Heavybagmedia.com. N.p., 08 June 2008. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.

"Rock Records & Tapes." Gogorock.com. N.p., 2009. Web. 03 Oct. 2012.

Wauters, Rubin. "Facebook Is Eating the World, except for China and Russia: World Map of Social Networks." Thenextweb.com. N.p., 10 June 2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.