Popular Music
The response of the recording industry to file sharing has been a negative one, hopefully with positive outcomes. In simple terms file sharing is as it sounds; the giving away of files for free. You could download music, movies, many files at no cost. This also means that the artists that created these files whatever they may be are getting nothing for their work. Napster, and Kazaa are some of the most well known sites that did this. As this began causing problems the record industry was successful in getting these companies shut down in court. I do not believe the 2013 ruling against Jammie Thomas will completely hault file sharing. The internet is much like the ocean, no can really control it completely. It is this weird place that can't be monitored as easily as everything else in our world. I do believe that it will bring notice to the fact that it is still happening and is definitely not okay. This is good.
Since using the "cloud" to stream music it has really affected the recording and performance industries in so many ways. The biggest places would be Spotify and Pandora, which are ad supported unless subscribed. These sites are great for learning about new artists, but it has caused problems for artists since it only pays fractions of a penny for each song played. Some artists like Beyonce, and Jay Z have decided to create their own site called Tidal where artists get paid properly for their work. Other artists like Adele and Taylor Swift withold their music until they reveal it at large performances. As far as performing goes, that is the biggest money maker for artists today. Touring and concerts are the best ways for the bigger artists to make money. This makes it tough for the smaller artists.
Independent music artists, also known as 'indy' artsts play some key roles in maintaining artistic integrity in the music business as a whole. These artists participate in self recording. They also use sites such as "soundcloud" or "youtube" to promote their music if they are unsigned. These artists have nothing to lose so they will do creative things to promote their music. It is similar to the "old school" way of doing things when artists were up and coming. In hopes that they bring the recording business back up in the ranks, which will be difficult with the technology of today.
I really like the connection with 'old school' and today's indy artists who upload online, which I assume you mean like when rap first started for example, and up and comers used to hand out their demo tapes in Times Square in the late 70's/early 80's for example. It's a a great time for the little guy to self-publish and there's a better chance of being noticed. It's possible for the completely unknown to catch a break, be seen, or to go viral for example. Thanks for the post, an interesting and well-articulated discussion.
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