What if We Were Older now?

Now that we have each type of career path routhly defined, it's time to look deeper into what works and why? Let's start by looking at music as a commodity, is music definable as an actual product, and how does this affect these artists and audiences.

Back when there was no radio, music was definately a commodity, people would pay for the product and in return would be able to see the music being played in front of them at theatres etc. And even with records and CD's, people would be getting a physical product that could be felt and used, for example, a pop star say from the 50's or 60's would make money from thier gigs and record sales, people would have to buy the physical product if they wanted to listen to the music, whereas today's X - Factor winners have to look for other means like the Christmas Marks 'n' Spencers ad's to help bring in more pofit, it is harder for people to purchase their work as a commodity; However, where the commodity is evaporating, so is the music itself. Cue the digital age.

 Nowadays people can get hold of any music they want at the click of a button, wether the commodity is there or not, this can work both ways and probably applies more now to the independent and Avant Garde artists. Before this time we have already established that the only ways for people to get hold of music were either by going to see the act live or having a physical copy of a record, tape, C.D. etc, which could have meant that unless the act wasn't big enough to be signed to a major label, there isn't much chance of people coming across thier music in a record store. Now, anyone and anyone could set up a band and get themselves visible to the world instantly, with social networking sites like Facebook where acts can put up a band profile and share with friends, who will share their friends and so on. They can also sell thier songs through countless download websites such as I-Tunes, one of the leading online music stores.

The problem that arises here then is if digital music isn't a physical thing, then why should someone pay the same price they would for a record or CD, or even pay at all. According to the IFPI Digital Music Report 2009, throughout 16 countries over three years, "IFPI estimates more than 40 billion files were illegally file shared in 2008, giving a piracy rate of around 95 percent". We can already see that if digital music is going to be the only way for artists to sell their work and with figures like that on the report, then there is not much money coming in for an artist at all. Furthermore, the Spanish music industry appears to be suffering quite badly form digital piracy, according to the same study in 2011, Spanish music sales "fell by around 55 per cent between 2005 and 2010" and "In 2010 alone, the market declined by and estimated 22 per cent.".

From this we can safely safe that the rise of the digital world can be damaging to budding artists and musicians, but it seems like the audiences (us) are still happy to download illegally due to digital music not always having a price tag, is that because the commodity is lost? and how will it get better for the musician when the customer is always right?