Entertainment and Free Online Games

Internet-Music Bond

The collaboration of Internet and music has shared a bond pleasing musicians and their audience since its inception a few years ago. On one hand, downloading music online allows its audience the option of obtaining music for free, a benefit to both the musicians and the audience. However, the Internet has also acted as the villain for opening a lot of avenues where talent goes unrecognised and do not get their due credit, which in a way is generally referred to as ‘online piracy.’

It doesn’t appear to be a new fad as streaming music sites with free accessible content are being used by a growing number of listeners as a substitute for buying music. For instance, a few years back, a survey revealed that music enthusiasts often spent a whopping amount of $100 per month buying CDs and digital downloads to fill their iPod.

Whereas, the internet and music bonding came a long way and proved less taxing, where in it has enabled music lovers to get their favourite music by spending only $10 or less each month. Services like Imeem and Last.fm (CBS) have given the music listeners a golden opportunity to listen to any kind of music over the Web for free or at minimal cost.

Online and Streaming Music Services

A San-Francisco based graphic designer offers his excitement and love for the industry. “I listen to more music than I used to. I pretty much have music playing all the time. It’s because I can access so much of it, however I want.”

The idea of online and streaming music services like Imeem, Last.fm, and Pandora would allow people to listen to music on PCs, mobile devices, and home stereos, while collecting small fees and advertising revenue for the services which is shared with labels and artists.

Gauging the potential popularity factor of the online music industry and streaming music services, Palo Alto-based Lala, launched the streaming music service with the same name in 2007. With Lala, people had an option of either paying 99 cents to download one song or paying just 10 cents for a Web-hosted song that they can access from any Web-connected PC. Lala users can also stream any song in the catalog once for free and store up to 50 songs in their online collection.

A Revolutionary Move: Radiohead

Around that time, Radiohead made news by putting the record industry into utter shock and dismay by releasing their new album, ‘In Rainbows’ for a free download via the web on 10 October 2007. This action by Radiohead was novel in itself after they had freed themselves from the shackle of the recording industry contract with the EMI/Capitol records label.

In 2007, offering an album for direct download wouldn’t have turned many heads had it been from any other music group , but keeping in mind the popularity and huge fan following of the English alternative rock band who won accolades and awards, did make for a revolutionary development in the music industry. Radiohead’s decision appeared alarming in the record label boardrooms as a move such as this was sure to create a deeper dent in the already slumping CD sales.

Radiohead believed that though the fans get an option to enjoy the music for free, it is likely that the audience will choose to pay for something in a way to reward the band for this bold endeavour, since all profits go directly to the band and not into the pockets of out-of-touch record labels. Also, the band believed fans would choose to download it directly from the band’s site instead of on P2P and file-sharing networks because that would enable the music listeners to get it faster and at a guaranteed quality bitrate encoding.

Challenges for the Record Industry

This move from the eminent music band alarmed the record industry even more because they could gauge a further shakeup in the music industry as other popular and famous musicians would demand better contract deals with the threat of leaving and distributing music themselves.

Earlier artists needed the record industry because they ran a monopoly to manufacture, distribute, market, stock, and sell CDs. With online music, artists can look for other options. The music industry has evolved as a content-centric industry where all that one needs is quality music, a PC and an internet connection. With online music gaining popularity, the record industry had to rethink their strategy of offering little incentives to the struggling bands for signing and marketing assistance.

The record industry realized that their over-hyped and over-budgeted time was almost coming to an abrupt end, while they no more stand as an indispensable medium for artists who want to showcase their talent. Radiohead showed the world that the internet allows artists to reach out to their fans and showcase talent while bypassing record labels.

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