How Does Music Consumption Impact the Music Industry and Benefit Artists?

Abstract

With the introduction of digital music in the 1990s, it internet-based music consumption has become significantly simpler and increasingly more popular as more and more consumers are streaming, sharing, and discovering new music all across the globe. With this new development of digital music, the dynamics of the music industry have been affected dramatically both in terms of record sales and the way music listeners are consuming music. Unfortunately, with the rise of music in its digital format came the rise of illegal file sharing sites, causing many to believe that the music industry was headed for its impending destruction. However, legal online purchasing services and the more recent surge of streaming services like Spotify and Pandora have added an additional element to the structure of music consumption. Despite some of these negative effects that the digital format of music has had on the industry, perhaps it is just this increased discoverability and accessibility that has encouraged the rising popularity of live music. The purpose of this project is to understand the methods and relevant trends of music consumption, determine those benefits received by the artists, and provide guidance to artists about the rapidly changing dynamic of the industry