How Streaming Changed Music

The internet has brought about many changes in our daily lives. We can now access it in our hands, wherever we want, order things online, and most importantly to me, streaming music. As a DJ, I have a very extensive music collection, ranging over 3,000 songs, and I'm constantly getting more. Being able to listen to new music whenever, wherever I am is incredibly important to me, and I'm happy that technology has advanced to this place. 
When I was born in 1995, people were listening to CD's, but the MP3 was developed the same year. As I grew up, this file format took over how people listened to music. CD's slowly became something that were only played in cars, and sales declined over time. Ipods and Apple boomed during this time, being filled with MP3's of people's favorite music. I was a fan of Limewire to get MP3's, because I was able to download any song for free, although it did do extensive damage to my home computer. When Youtube came out in 2005, it brought about another revolution to music because people would make channels for artists to release music on, and it was a place to watch music videos and even full albums.

("What really killed the CD")

When Spotify came into existence into 2008, it changed how people consumed music again. Nobody is buying MP3's from iTunes anymore, they're simply streaming music from places like Spotify and Soundcloud. "In offering instantaneous access to an artist's entire discography or top hits, along with curated playlists and sharing capabilities, programs like Spotify and Slacker eliminated the need for storing music files—making it easier to simply stream content from any computer-based device such as laptop or smartphone" (Bracetti, "10 Ways"). People are saving playlists of their favorite songs for offline use, not putting it onto their phones. Some people say that the MP3 is dying because, "the patent administrator, are terminating the format's licensing program due to the patent expiring" (Owsinski, "Forbes"), and while it may still be around for a while, I'm sure that it will be inevitably replaced by something new. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne would consider that anything past vinyl music would be the downturn of music culture, but because people can download these apps for free they can listen to new music and discover new artists. With the easy of finding new music, and all the platforms to use, it has lead to a greater opportunity for artists to be discovered. "It is easier to find and less costly to release new music, leading to unpredictable successes from artists who might not have been discovered or produced an album in an earlier era." (McFadden, "Streaming"). There has also been a lot of cultures being created from new music, like EDM for example, that wouldn't be there without the new streaming services that helped bring the underground music into the more mainstream culture. 

Streaming has taken over how we consume music so much that the Grammy's have been swayed to keep up with the times by allowing "streaming-only albums to be considered starting this year. Before, only traditionally released, physical albums were counted". (Grant, "Chance the Rapper") This allowed Chance the Rapper, an independent artist, to win Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Album in 2017.

Something that I don't like about these new streaming sites is that nobody has a music collection anymore. Like I said before, I dj, so I have a large music collection and it's important for me to be able to download new tunes. Spotify doesn't have downloads, but I prefer Soundcloud because it has 100 million more songs and anybody can upload their music. It's a great platform to discover unknown artists and tracks.

Overall, the way we consume music has changed drastically in my lifetime, and will probably change even more in 20 more years. CD's have come and gone, music players and iPods are barely in use anymore, and that's within a two decades. The platforms we use will change, and it will be interesting to see how much longer physical music lasts with the digital age coming into all aspects of our lives.

                                                                                                                                    

Bibliography 

Bracetti, Alex. “10 Ways Tech Has Changed How We Consume MusicMobile Carta Holy Grail.” Complex, Complex, 6 Oct. 2017, www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/07/10-ways-tech-has-changed-how-we-consume-music/mobile-carta.

Grant, Sarah. “What Chance the Rapper's Streaming-Only Grammy Nod Means for Pop.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/music/features/what-chance-the-rappers-streaming-only-grammy-nod-means-w466125.

McFadden, Michael LucaCraig. “How Streaming Is Changing Music (Again).” Harvard Business Review, 12 Dec. 2016, hbr.org/2016/12/how-streaming-is-changing-music-again.

Owsinski, Bobby. “The MP3 Is Not Dead, And I Can Prove It.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 22 May 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/bobbyowsinski/2017/05/22/mp3-death/#666d4c51b765.

“What Really Killed the CD?” Digital Music News, 6 Feb. 2017, www.digitalmusicnews.com/2014/08/20/really-killed-cd/.