Music Revolution?

I just recently watched a documentary shown at the Discovery Channel entitled “The iPod Revolution.” It basically narrates how the iPod came to be and how it reached its status as an icon of our generation. From the rise of digital music because of Napster, to the genius of Steve Jobs in realizing an untapped market of music enthusiasts waiting for the right hardware to put all their music into using a software unlike any other, to the luck that Apple was able to strike simply because of the distinct white earphones of the iPod which was only meant to match the white body of the iPod, and finally to the unrelenting effort by Steve Jobs to persuade the big music companies to put their music into an online music store for 99 cents for a song. All of this was chronicled in the documentary.

The documentary definitely showed me the level of speed that is involved in the development of technology at this time. From what I remember, all of the events involved happened in a span of 4 years, more or less.

Curious about the future of the music industry given the rapid changes in technology and the internet, I found out that a lot of artists, especially new ones, are now publishing their own music online. From what I know (I could be wrong…), you can stream the music but you would have to order in order to get your own copy. But why order if you can listen to it for free at virtually anytime?

Unfortunately, this curiosity gave me more questions than answers about the future of the music industry. How do they earn their much needed money if they basically give away their music for free? What happens to the big music companies?

Don’t get me wrong, free music is great. And, of course, a lot more factors are involved in the trend involved and how effective it will turn out to be. However, it is still just a big puzzle for me. One thing’s for sure, no more music CDs for me thanks to MP3.

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Rivera, Jan Michael A.
02-16779