The Online Revolution

The online revolution has changed the music industry forever. 


'Napster' was a website created to let anyone download and share music for free. The website was known as a file hosting site. The majority of music on this file hosting webpage was from signed musical artists. This meant that the major record labels such ass Universal or Sony, had lost potential profit. This also meant the artist themselves lose potential target audiences due to the fact that certain records leaks, normally unfinished tracks, therefore the consumer is not getting the right product. This whole process is known as illegal downloading. If the consumer is caught, they may be fined or sent to prison.


However, some artists think it is a good idea to let their target audience download their music from various file hosting websites because in today's society, artists interact with their fans through different social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. This makes it easy for fans to talk about the artists music freely, whether it be positive or negative feedback, the artist can gain an idea of how to improve.


YouTube is another website where people and upload, share and view different types of videos. Justin Bieber, Soulja Boy and Lil B are all artists in the music industry who have used YouTube to build a fan base, become signed and develop a career. Justin Bieber uploaded covers of himself singing other songs, whilst Soulja Boy created a whole new dance craze known today as 'Crank Dat'


Duffy, a recording artist signed to Universal, did not use the internet to promote her music, when she became signed, her music was promoted through concerts and synergy. For example, he starred  and her music was played in a diet coke advert, which aired around the time she was getting ready to release her new album. This would have widened the target market therefore inceasing sales.


The promotion of music has become adapted to the internet, for example if the artist wants to gain a certain fan base, use YouTube or Twitter to interact and gain feedback from fans. Even though record labels lose money from illegal downloading, they still have different revenue streams in place to counter act the loss. For example concerts and album signings.