The future’s bright the future’s virtual – music and the internet
Instant, no risk, legal music on your desktop? Gavin Luhrs suggests that together music and the Internet have a bright future.
Case study
For OCR’s New Media Technologies 2732 unit you need to prepare a case study. Ideally you will cover more than one technology, and get a balance of material relating to both audiences and institutions. The important thing to bear in mind, which may well reassure you, is that you won’t need to have detailed knowledge of the technology itself.
At first, ‘The Internet’ may seem like an excellent topic for your research – but you’ll quickly realise that there’s too much of it. If asked to research the geography of a particular place you wouldn’t choose ‘The World’ – which is practically what would be involved in doing ‘The Internet’. This article attempts to offer some starting points for your research into ‘Music and the Internet’. I stress the starting point: you’ll soon see that while music provides a narrower focus, there’s still a lot to consider.
File ‘sharing’
A few years ago, a software program called Napster was created and then closed down for allowing the illegal sharing of copyrighted material, mostly music files. An exploration of theNapster case has filled whole books, so further research on your part is needed. It may now be out of date in the rapidly shifting world of New Media Technologies, but it still serves as a useful illustration of why the future of music distribution is digital. Conservative estimates put the number of Napster users at 40 million only 18 months after it was created and having used no conventional advertising. Okay, Napster was allowing access to music for free, much of it months before it was available in the shops; but such a high figure, gained before significant broadband rollout, does indicate a keen appetite for a new way of accessing music. And the fact that media giant BMG effectively bought Napster for a reported $55 million (whilst involved with the prosecution of the service for copyright infringement!) suggests that even the ‘suits’ see the potential.
Napster may have been stopped but other services persist: Audio Galaxy, Morpheus, Grokster and KaZaA are just four examples. A recent survey by the British Phonographic Industry Ltd (BPI) suggests that around five million people in the UK download over one billion tracks a year using peer-to-peer file sharing programs, creating 126 million CDs using computer CD writers. Despite such huge figures, the exchanging of music files allowed by these programs is actually illegal. Some suggest that the lack of legitimate music online has forced people to use alternative sources.
Buying music online
However, this year there have been signs that the music industry is beginning to catch up with the rest of the world. In April EMI was the first of the big five record companies to make the majority of its music available online (90% or around 140,000 tracks). As the number of broadband connections rises, we may see a new way of purchasing music become the accepted standard. Legitimate downloads are now tracked to create a weekly chart, a sign of growing acceptance. It is predicted that almost 20% of all music sales will be in digital format within 10 years. At the moment there are two ways of buying and downloading music from the Internet:subscription and pay-as-you-go.
Subscription vs. Pay-As-You-Go
Subscription based services offering many of the features of Napster-type programmes – with the difference that they are completely legal, even if they are not free – are now widely available from the likes of MSN, Freeserve, HMV, BT and many others. The most common pricing structure is 500 credits for a £4.99 monthly fee. With these credits users have a choice: you can stream tracks at a cost of one credit each, download tracks for 10 credits each, or burn to CD for 100 credits. As you can see, the pricing encourages users not to create physical copies of the music, but instead access them on demand. The tracks downloaded using subscription services are encrypted so they can’t be played by others or by non-subscribers. This process is referred to as Digital Rights Management (or DRM).
This last point is a vital shift: if these services prove popular, in the future you won’t buy music, but instead will rent it. On Demand Distribution (OD2), the company providing the infrastructure and management of many of these services, acknowledges that for older consumers this is an unfamiliar concept. Younger users aren’t put off, according to OD2; as the market matures, so acceptance of ‘renting’ will grow. The issue for many music lovers, however, is the commitment to a perpetual subscription, as the downloaded tracks become useless once your subscription to a service ends (it doesn’t have to be the same service, but you do need to subscribe to one of them). On a per track basis, these services are certainly cheaper, but their success depends on a shift in consumer thinking.
Some providers, most notably Apple, offer songs for download on a pay-as-you-go basis (PAYG). Launched at the end of April, and only available to US Mac users, the Apple iTunesshop sold over one million tracks in its first week of operation. By the end of 2003 a Windows version is expected. Whilst still employing DRM technology, Apple’s approach is more relaxed, and it appears more popular. PAYG services have the advantage that they don’t require such a huge shift in consumer behaviour; the tracks become the permanent (digital) property of the consumer, and aren’t dependent on long term commitment.
Whilst it is still unclear which method will prevail, what is certain is that buying and downloading music from the Internet is here to stay. It will change the way audiences think about buying music, and it will lead to changes in the home: media servers delivering content to wirelessly networked stereos doesn’t sound as far-fetched as it did just a few years ago.
Discovering music online
Part of the reason buying music online is potentially so popular is the interconnected nature of the Internet. It is possible – indeed increasingly common – for someone to see a new band mentioned (perhaps on the message board on the site of another band), visit the official site, read reviews from the music press (www.nme.com or www.q4music.com for example) and by fans (at places like www.amazon.co.uk), download previews and then buy a CD or download tracks from an online retailer. All of this is legal, and could happen in a very short space of time without leaving home. With the Internet no music purchase has to be a risk, and can be virtually instant.
For institutions, this type of integration is invaluable. Not only can official websites encourage fans to buy music, but they can also direct audiences to outlets of the music at the click of a mouse. By using legal online distribution services record companies can significantly reduce costs – and help to reduce the number of illegal downloads.
For audiences, the Internet has all but replaced the ‘fanzine’ (underground music ‘magazines’ usually devoted to particular bands and sold at gigs). Rather than selling poorly photocopied material, now anyone can produce a slick looking ‘fanzine’, sharing with the world their thoughts on a band or genre of music. The creators of such sites are also contributing to a shift in the behaviour of music-buying audiences. In many ways, such sites are more valuable than official sites in that they are often lovingly created with no thought of payment, just the desire to encourage more people to buy the music. And that’s the point to remember: the technology and the competing business models will always be secondary to the music itself. MM
Glossary
Broadband – High speed Internet access.
Encryption – The ‘locking’ of computer data so that only users with an authorised ‘key’ can access it.
Peer-to-peer file-sharing – A peer-to-peer network directly connects users to each other, allowing the sharing of data, most commonly music and video files. As peer-to-peer networks don’t have to use a central server, newer file sharing programs cannot be stopped as easily as Napster, which did rely on a central server.
Server – A computer that delivers data to connected devices, for example a web page to another computer.
Stream – Accessing music and video ‘on demand’, viewing it as it downloads rather than after the whole file is on your computer. When streaming a file no copy remains on your computer once it has finished playing.
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 5, September 2003
Instant, no risk, legal music on your desktop? Gavin Luhrs suggests that together music and the Internet have a bright future.
Case study
For OCR’s New Media Technologies 2732 unit you need to prepare a case study. Ideally you will cover more than one technology, and get a balance of material relating to both audiences and institutions. The important thing to bear in mind, which may well reassure you, is that you won’t need to have detailed knowledge of the technology itself.
At first, ‘The Internet’ may seem like an excellent topic for your research – but you’ll quickly realise that there’s too much of it. If asked to research the geography of a particular place you wouldn’t choose ‘The World’ – which is practically what would be involved in doing ‘The Internet’. This article attempts to offer some starting points for your research into ‘Music and the Internet’. I stress the starting point: you’ll soon see that while music provides a narrower focus, there’s still a lot to consider.
File ‘sharing’
A few years ago, a software program called Napster was created and then closed down for allowing the illegal sharing of copyrighted material, mostly music files. An exploration of theNapster case has filled whole books, so further research on your part is needed. It may now be out of date in the rapidly shifting world of New Media Technologies, but it still serves as a useful illustration of why the future of music distribution is digital. Conservative estimates put the number of Napster users at 40 million only 18 months after it was created and having used no conventional advertising. Okay, Napster was allowing access to music for free, much of it months before it was available in the shops; but such a high figure, gained before significant broadband rollout, does indicate a keen appetite for a new way of accessing music. And the fact that media giant BMG effectively bought Napster for a reported $55 million (whilst involved with the prosecution of the service for copyright infringement!) suggests that even the ‘suits’ see the potential.
Napster may have been stopped but other services persist: Audio Galaxy, Morpheus, Grokster and KaZaA are just four examples. A recent survey by the British Phonographic Industry Ltd (BPI) suggests that around five million people in the UK download over one billion tracks a year using peer-to-peer file sharing programs, creating 126 million CDs using computer CD writers. Despite such huge figures, the exchanging of music files allowed by these programs is actually illegal. Some suggest that the lack of legitimate music online has forced people to use alternative sources.
Buying music online
However, this year there have been signs that the music industry is beginning to catch up with the rest of the world. In April EMI was the first of the big five record companies to make the majority of its music available online (90% or around 140,000 tracks). As the number of broadband connections rises, we may see a new way of purchasing music become the accepted standard. Legitimate downloads are now tracked to create a weekly chart, a sign of growing acceptance. It is predicted that almost 20% of all music sales will be in digital format within 10 years. At the moment there are two ways of buying and downloading music from the Internet:subscription and pay-as-you-go.
Subscription vs. Pay-As-You-Go
Subscription based services offering many of the features of Napster-type programmes – with the difference that they are completely legal, even if they are not free – are now widely available from the likes of MSN, Freeserve, HMV, BT and many others. The most common pricing structure is 500 credits for a £4.99 monthly fee. With these credits users have a choice: you can stream tracks at a cost of one credit each, download tracks for 10 credits each, or burn to CD for 100 credits. As you can see, the pricing encourages users not to create physical copies of the music, but instead access them on demand. The tracks downloaded using subscription services are encrypted so they can’t be played by others or by non-subscribers. This process is referred to as Digital Rights Management (or DRM).
This last point is a vital shift: if these services prove popular, in the future you won’t buy music, but instead will rent it. On Demand Distribution (OD2), the company providing the infrastructure and management of many of these services, acknowledges that for older consumers this is an unfamiliar concept. Younger users aren’t put off, according to OD2; as the market matures, so acceptance of ‘renting’ will grow. The issue for many music lovers, however, is the commitment to a perpetual subscription, as the downloaded tracks become useless once your subscription to a service ends (it doesn’t have to be the same service, but you do need to subscribe to one of them). On a per track basis, these services are certainly cheaper, but their success depends on a shift in consumer thinking.
Some providers, most notably Apple, offer songs for download on a pay-as-you-go basis (PAYG). Launched at the end of April, and only available to US Mac users, the Apple iTunesshop sold over one million tracks in its first week of operation. By the end of 2003 a Windows version is expected. Whilst still employing DRM technology, Apple’s approach is more relaxed, and it appears more popular. PAYG services have the advantage that they don’t require such a huge shift in consumer behaviour; the tracks become the permanent (digital) property of the consumer, and aren’t dependent on long term commitment.
Whilst it is still unclear which method will prevail, what is certain is that buying and downloading music from the Internet is here to stay. It will change the way audiences think about buying music, and it will lead to changes in the home: media servers delivering content to wirelessly networked stereos doesn’t sound as far-fetched as it did just a few years ago.
Discovering music online
Part of the reason buying music online is potentially so popular is the interconnected nature of the Internet. It is possible – indeed increasingly common – for someone to see a new band mentioned (perhaps on the message board on the site of another band), visit the official site, read reviews from the music press (www.nme.com or www.q4music.com for example) and by fans (at places like www.amazon.co.uk), download previews and then buy a CD or download tracks from an online retailer. All of this is legal, and could happen in a very short space of time without leaving home. With the Internet no music purchase has to be a risk, and can be virtually instant.
For institutions, this type of integration is invaluable. Not only can official websites encourage fans to buy music, but they can also direct audiences to outlets of the music at the click of a mouse. By using legal online distribution services record companies can significantly reduce costs – and help to reduce the number of illegal downloads.
For audiences, the Internet has all but replaced the ‘fanzine’ (underground music ‘magazines’ usually devoted to particular bands and sold at gigs). Rather than selling poorly photocopied material, now anyone can produce a slick looking ‘fanzine’, sharing with the world their thoughts on a band or genre of music. The creators of such sites are also contributing to a shift in the behaviour of music-buying audiences. In many ways, such sites are more valuable than official sites in that they are often lovingly created with no thought of payment, just the desire to encourage more people to buy the music. And that’s the point to remember: the technology and the competing business models will always be secondary to the music itself. MM
Glossary
Broadband – High speed Internet access.
Encryption – The ‘locking’ of computer data so that only users with an authorised ‘key’ can access it.
Peer-to-peer file-sharing – A peer-to-peer network directly connects users to each other, allowing the sharing of data, most commonly music and video files. As peer-to-peer networks don’t have to use a central server, newer file sharing programs cannot be stopped as easily as Napster, which did rely on a central server.
Server – A computer that delivers data to connected devices, for example a web page to another computer.
Stream – Accessing music and video ‘on demand’, viewing it as it downloads rather than after the whole file is on your computer. When streaming a file no copy remains on your computer once it has finished playing.
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 5, September 2003
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