Music Industry and Information Technology

Music Industry and Information Technology
Introduction
For starters, the word ‘music’ can be defined as an art form involving organized sounds and silence, expressed in terms of pitch, quality, and rhythm.
Since time immemorial, music has been used as the medium of choice by many to “calm the soul of the wounded beast’, as it were…
Melodic works are useful to many for myriads of reasons; communication, serving an aesthetic or artistic role, ceremonial and/or religious purposes, relaxation and/or meditation, inspiration, capturing particular situations (more so on the part of the musician him/herself), but in this given context, such are employed with the objective of providing daily bread, as many-a-people are actively involved in the now-thriving Music Industry, a term used to describe a wide range of music-related businesses and/or organizations, including the musicians themselves who are engaged in not only composing but also performing songs, chiefly for commercial gain. This definition is as per the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) that includes sound recording and music publishing activities (J-59) (Ideas for Dozens: A brief history of the Music Industry).
Additionally, being quite diverse in nature, other sets of workers earn their livelihood via music-related activities, inclusive of record producers, talent managers, entertainment lawyers, journalists, promoters, instrument manufacturers, to name but a few.
General meaning
When applied in a broader sense, the term ‘Music Industry’ encompasses a wide array of sub-industries that conglomerate from several industrial classifications, such as Information and Communication, which deals with all matters sound-recording and music-publishing, programming, and broadcasting activities (for instance, radio stations), Arts, Recreation and entertainment, Manufacturing and Retail Sales-including that of music instruments, and also the Educational aspect of the same, including activities carried out in Music Training Schools and assorted Disc Jockey (DJ) Academies. In the same breath, the terminology also denotes an affiliation with various non-profit-motivated bodies, including Performance Rights Organizations, Musicians’ Unions, and Writers’ Copyrights Collectives.
Evolution of the Industry
The development of the music industry can be traced back to the early 1700s when the Church was at the core of facilitating the growth of the same through the provision of patronage. However, towards the end of that century, various performers began seeking commercial markets for their work, a relevant example of such being one Wolfgang Mozart, hence initiating the paradigm shift to fostering the uprise of the industry.
In the early 1900s, sheet music publishers dominated the industry, which refers to a printed or hand-written form of musical notation that utilized paper or parchment as the principal medium. The cylinder machine was in use before gradual technological advancements were made into records, gramophone, radio, stereo, audiocassettes, and finally, the Compact Disc, largely regarded as the finest available carrier of music for that point in time, evidenced by high sales during the latter part of the 1980s, hence replacing Vinyl use. The technological advancements did not stop at this. There have always existed people who due to their desire to embrace the unembraceable strive for perfection and make unbelievable innovations. Driven by the immense desire to obtain something even more convenient than a CD, to run their computer music libraries, and to listen to the music selected by them alone, people ended up inventing MP3 format.
Situational/Customer/Industrial Analysis
Introducing innovation after innovation was what ruined the music industry. In 2006 the CD was the main product of the record industry. It accounted for more than 80% of total global sales. In 2007 the sales reduced by 19% and it became evident that there would never be any changes for the better. With the availability of MP3 music, the CD format was no longer accepted.
Industrial situation
Several changes in the music industry have been documented, not only regarding the distribution of the music itself but also the actual production process. The state of affairs towards the end of the 1990s decade was that professional recording studios record a variety of music genres catering for different audiences on Compact Disc (CD) format, including hip hop/rap, rock, jazz, and pop, as dictated by the market demand, and consequently, the afore-mentioned record labels step in to play the distributive role. Competition among the Big Four was rife, with each battling for a larger pool of musicians to be honed ‘under their belt’, proverbially speaking, not to mention the turf wars that are the order of the day.
In 1