Undoubtedly technology is a wondrous thing which has improved humankind’s lives immeasurably. As is it wont, its effects are never exactly as anticipated thereby creating new complications. The technologies unleashed upon the music business have created their own predicaments and conundrums.
The original forms in which music was delivered to the plebeians was extremely user unfriendly. Both the record and the reel-to-reel tape were cumbersome and unwieldy pieces on equipment not suited for use in moving vehicles and carrying with one to the beach.
Main picture: The mainstay of consumer music until the mid 1980s, the extremely cumbersome and fragile vinyl record.
The development of the cassette in the 1960s revolutionised that aspect. Music had now become portable. Beach parties, with their copious quantities of booze, were now musically accompanied by the ubiquitous portable cassette player. The cassette was synonymous with music and pleasure in such settings.
The more portable but high quality indestructible CD made music even easier to consume. The term more portable was used advisedly as even with CD shuttles in one’s car, the number of CD discs which one would typically carry in the car was limited.

The cassette tape: Much more practical than the vinyl record and vastly more portable but still far too bulky
What the consumer really desired was an unlimited supply of music in one’s pocket or one’s hand.
Enter left stage, the iPod. Yes there had been other such devices around for some time but they lacked the ease of use and probably more importantly the “cool factor”. Steve Jobs with his artistic talents was just the person to re-invent the Media Player.
Voila! The iPod was the end result.
Angst arose amongst the artistic classes as the downloading of music rose like a torrent[sic] using the ubiquitous program called generically a Torrent.
Steve Job, ever the clever marketer, stepped into the breach. He would allow one to pay for downloads onto his device through iTunes and his iStore. The reluctant music industry seeing the writing on the wall, bowed to his pressure and entered into deals where Apple would be in the driver’s seat. Control of the music industry by the music moguls was ebbing. Into that breach, the technology companies were not stepping but charging like raging bulls.
Having savoured free music for so long, would the consumer suddenly agree to part with their hard earned money to pay for music. Part of the grab-bags of tricks to lever the consumer onto this path was the threat of legal action under various piracy charges and on the other hand by cheap music easily downloadable.
Maybe this music was easily downloadable without the threat of possible legal action but it certainly was not cheap. As the sales of physical music media such as CDs declined, the cannibalised revenues were not replaced by an equivalent level of download sales. Exacerbating this trend for the record companies was that they had now forfeited their pricing ability to a technology company. As such they were no longer masters of their own destiny.
The latest ploy to entice consumers to pay for their music consumption is streaming. This business model allows the user access on a streaming basis to their catalogue of millions of songs. Generally this would be for a fixed sum of money per month.
What companies such as the Swedish Spotify have done is to implement the “freemium” model. In terms of this offering, it allows most users to obtain their music for free whilst those with specialist needs pay for it. Of course those obtaining their music on the cheap also have to endure the nasty side-effects such as advertising between songs. What has happened is that most users being 75%+ have elected to endure the chaff with the wheat and not pay.
Personally I am a fervent believer that the consumer has an obligation to pay for his consumption for the intellectual property of the musicians. The younger generation, on the contrary, tends to believe the opposite – that the internet and all its benefits should be available for nothing.
What is happening in practice?
If we take the previous two years as a window opening onto a brave new world, the model’s wheels might not have fallen off but they are certainly experiencing a series of flat tyres and other disruptions.
Firstly the sales of downloaded music is still paltry and not replacing the declining CD sales. But more disturbing is the trend in steaming music. The use of free streaming services has stubbornly resisted the 25% barrier and even more alarmingly declined as have streaming music in total.
Where does this leave the music industry?
What have the ramifications been thus far?
Certainly I am unaware of musicians starving on the streets and frequenting soup kitchens. What I am equally unaware of is how many people will never enter the music business due to the reduced chance of likelihood? Probably not many! How have the majority of the musicians survived in the past is through live performances? The greatest effect will be at the top end: those musicians who actually sold CDs. They have always been in the minority at less than 1% of all musicians. For them, the aging rockers et al, will have to forfeit their retirement and play live music again.
Was this not what musicians of yore had to do before records and CDs?
Like the rest of society they will have to spend the first 40 years after puberty working for a living.
Is this denouement of physical music sales such a terrible imposition?
As Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once famously quoted for his epigram “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” loosely translated as “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
Of course, this applies to the musicians only and not to us, the consumers, who are benefitting handsomely due to the changed paradigm.
What can we say? Technological advances will continue. Recently a probe landed on a comet, the technology to get it there is ten years old.
Personally I think we have forsaken quality for quantity. The speed with which we can retrieve music is phenomenal. However, the fun of searching for, and finding a gem in an old fashioned music store was part of the “musical” experience. The dirty hands!
The question I so often ask myself is; “to buy a CD or not”? Now there is swing back to vinyl, no longer records. Do I start buying these or is it just a marketing gimmick to get consumers (music lovers) to pay for music?
As we grow older, not necessarily wiser, do we continue to accumulate? Be it music, in physical format or books in physical format or anything else, collectables, etc? As a German business associate said many years ago, “who knows”!
I am not too sure which way to go. Still believing that downloaded music is of poorer quality than that on a CD. If the experts are to believed, Vinyl is better because of the warmth etc, etc!
Hi Frik
As regards vinyls, I believe that they are a passing fab. They have not gained traction anywhere in the world. Maybe there will be a minority who want them but in the scheme of things they will not make an impact.
They will be a bit like the classical music lovers – marginal.
The advantage of iPods is that one can carry 1000s of songs in one device. One is then restricted to the few CDs that one can carry in one’s vehicle. Before I climb into my car, I am unaware what songs I would like to listen to. Depending upon my mood, I will select the song
I am now sploit for choice. In fact I have TOO FEW songs on my iPod
As regards quality, many organistions have attempted to introduce higher quality CDs but they have failed miserably. None of these new formats have gained anything but a miniscule market share before they faded. That tells me that the average consumer does not require higher quality music and is satisfied with the current quality.
There is a similar attempt at higher definition TVs currently under way. It will be interesting what kind of reaction the UDF – Ultra High Definition or 4K format will make.
Personally I favour the higher quality but whether the price will make the product attractive for the average consumer is debatable. Just look at Blu-ray. It is a vastly superior product yet the uptake has been poor.
Again that indicates satisfaction with the existing quality
That is my pennies worth
Regards