From Elvis to Beiber: Music enters the social media age

Vinyl records, compact discs, tape players, Walkmans, ipods and iPhones. Music has evolved in ways no one could have predicted. In the days of vinyl music sharing an Elvis song consisted of driving over to a friends house to listen on the record player. In todays world music sharing has exploded into the social media market. Websites provide easy access to artists music and connection to social media to share those experiences. The emergence of music sharing has forever changed the music industry.

The technology we use today is faster than ever. People can become overnight sensations just from one youtube post. The emergence of social media in the past years connects people in ways never seen before. People can communicate from farther distances, more often and in larger groups. These social networks allow people to express themselves to people they may have never met. Posting their life story, or even keeping it private for their friends; people are flocking to social media outlets.

Myspace has changed its identity with music

The music industry is slowly adapting to the social media outlets. Myspace, a once large social network mostly populated by teenagers had to change their mentality after Facebook took over the everyday life market from Myspace. Myspace is now a hub for aspiring bands to promote their music. Myspace music  is filled with artists promoting themselves and well known artist connecting with their fan base. Myspace provides free listening opportunities for visitors as well as the ability to purchase tracks from artists.

File sharing sites such as Napster and Kazaa allowed users to download music illegally for free from other peoples computers. These websites created an illegal file sharing network that music labels became extremely frustrated with. Kazaa itself created a network of 5 million computers sharing files from music to movies. In the early 2000s these websites were shut down by the government for illegal copyright usage of songs but their impact has only led to the rise of legal music sharing sites.

The argument to this day remains weather providing free access to music benefits the artist or not. Many websites provide access to music but in order to take it somewhere else than their website a purchase is necessary. Websites such as Spotify.com allow users to listen to unlimited music for free but in order for the user to take that song with them on an mp3 device a purchase is necessary. Lastf.fm allows users to create a profile and listen to music for free and share with friends which songs they like and are currently listening to.

Many artists have thrived of the explosion of free music sharing. The best example is found in Justin Beiber. Justin Beiber became an overnight sensation through youtube. This video chronicles how Justin Beiber became an overnight sensation:

What about me?
If I was an aspiring artist I would provide free songs online with the option for purchase as seen in sites discussed above such as Myspace or Spotify. As proven by Justin Beiber, providing free songs is what is needed to get your name out there. If you make your songs pay only from the beginning people will not be willing to pay for a song they have not even heard yet. I would make money from people who like my songs and purchase them so they can take them with them and also through possible advertisements on my website from the traffic it could create.