Once the CD came into wide circulation, digitized music reached the masses in a big way. Coding sound as a series of 0’s and 1’s made transmission and manipulation easier; by the time the millennium arrived, more powerful home computers and a new generation of tech-savvy youth were ready to take advantage of this new outlet and change the music business for good and all.
MP3 Technology
Digitizing music had made it possible to change and transmit sound without having a hard copy, but the amount of computer storage such sound took up was impractical for any but music producers to deal with. Somehow, the file usage had to shrink. Enter MP3 file compression: in 1996, German company Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft patented a method for reducing the data usage required for sound files without reducing the sound quality. Combined with the greater downloading capacity of late 90’s computers as compared to previous models, the MP3 began a trend which would soon become the bane of the record business (Bellis, Coleman 182-187, Szatmary 384-386,).
File-sharing
Peer-to-peer file sharing began as a way for multiple computers to connect and share task too big for one user or server to do. This kept costs low, and made downloading and sharing anonymous. However, it was largely the domain of the computer whiz in the early digital age. In 1999, a college dropout named Shawn Fanning started a business with his uncle, coding a program called Napster which allowed users to share their computer files with others for free. Though only in operation for two years before being shut down for copyright evasion in 2001, Napster and peer-to-peer file sharing caused an explosion in the use of MP3’s, as music was now simple and easy (if somewhat illegal) to trade. By 2003, 60 million Americans (most of them young) had downloaded music from the internet. To listen to this music, consumers bought the iPod (released 2001) in droves, carrying their own unique music mixes everywhere. However, MP3’s were seen as unethical and unprofitable until iTunes made legal downloads easy in 2003 (Coleman 178-181, Szatmary 383, Daswani et al. 3).
(Video: “How Did Napster Work?” by James Allen-Robertson/CC BY 2.0)
Digital Music and Consumer Choice
With another change in format following on the heels of the CD revolution, the music business was left reeling, Most panicked about illegal downloads, with good reason. Young buyers, their best customers, were going online for music rather than using them. More troubling, they weren’t always buying the music of the “stars” of the Top 40. The ease of the internet allowed user to find genres and artists they didn’t even know they wanted, and download one or two songs rather than a whole album. Even with the legal route of iTunes, this made the music business ever more beholden to the customer. The album format, though still in evidence, became less important; kids with computers could listen to songs in any order they chose.
Other technologies, such as social media and internet radio, allowed artists to bypass the traditional production route and advertise directly to the people. And though MP3’s did help sell hard-copy albums, both record companies and artists had to find new ways to turn a profit. Once merely promotional, concert tours and merchandise became bread and butter for bands; some even gave away free albums at shows. Still, CD sales went down 46% between 2000 and 2007, leaving the music business feeling the shockwaves to this day (Coleman 187-195, Szatmary 385-390).
Digital Sampling
Slightly less controversial than the download wars was the emergence of digital sampling in music. A “quotation” from another song, sampling adds the sounds of one song into another to create a “mash-up” of sounds. This began with hip-hop DJ’s using multiple record turntables in the 1980’s, but digitized music is even easier to sample, as tone and speed can be changed to better fit with the main song. Using the music manipulation programs available on modern computers, sampling and manipulation allowed would-be artists to create their own songs, as well as helping the music of older artists gain traction. The sound of sampling is now widespread, with everything from Nikki Minaj’s “Anaconda” to Daft Punk’s “One More Time” featuring older music within the song (Coleman 78-85).
A “music video” constructed exclusively from digitally sampling a documentary on the rise of electronic music; gives a good idea of what can be done with a computer and some ingenuity! (Video: “Digital Age” by metrodnb / CC BY 2.0)
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