Sometimes I’ll Hear That Song, and I’ll Start to Sing Along

Musical artists and the recording industry are finding it harder and harder to bring in revenue. Technology is to blame for most of the hardships that successful musicians and managers face. Technology makes it easier to mass produce songs and albums, therefore causing the price of both to decrease. Compact discs are almost obscure, and vinyl records aren’t even thought of anymore. Services like iTunes and Napster allow customers to buy new albums at a discounted price, giving only a small percentage of revenue to record companies, and even less to the actual artist. You don’t even need to buy the whole album, you can just buy one or two songs for just $.99 each, further depleting their earnings.

The following is a time line of how music technology has changed over the years:
1888 Edison introduces an electric motor-driven phonograph.
1895 Marconi achieves wireless radio transmission from Italy to America.
1919 The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is founded
1948 The microgroove 33-1/3 rpm long-play vinyl record (LP) is introduced by Columbia Records.
1949 RCA introduces the microgroove 45 rpm, large-hole, 7-inch record and record changer/adaptor.
1954 Sony produces the first pocket transistor radios.
1963 Philips introduces the Compact Cassette tape format, and offers licenses worldwide.
1980 Sony introduces a palm-sized stereo cassette tape player called a “Walkman.”
1981 Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc (CD).
1982 Sony releases the first CD player, the Model CDP-101.
1998 MP-3 players for downloaded Internet audio appear.
2001 iPod 1st generation
…you know the rest…

As you can see, technology has worked alongside consumers to help us obtain music more easily. By no means am I complaining, I like the fact that I don’t have to buy an entire CD just to listen to one song. At the same time, I feel guilty because I know this hurts the music industry. Today, most artists need to tour for 6 months or more per year in order to make enough money to support their lifestyle and career. Very few musicians can forgo the touring and still live the way they want. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus is one of these few, but her popularity is sure to fizzle out, seeing as she is 16 years old and a soon to be Disney Channel drop-out.

It seems that as times change and technology once again catches up with the entertainment market, artists will need to find new ways to bring attention to their talents. One way they might be able to do this? Through popular games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I know this doesn’t sound like your typical advertisement, but the latest Guitar Hero game, which features songs by Aerosmith, racked up first-week sales that more than tripled those of the band’s last studio album. 500,000 copies of the game were bought when it was released last month, compared to 160,500 copies of Aerosmith’s Honkin’ on Bobo album released in 2004. The revenues from the game and album show an even greater gap with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith raking in more than $25 million, while Honkin’ on Bobo only managed $2 million. Aerosmith isn’t the only group to reap the benefits of the Guitar Hero game, either.

Pretty soon this may be how artists are recognized. Sure, not everyone enjoys the genre of the songs used in Guitar Hero or Rock Band. But nearly everyone enjoys playing the game, and by doing so may subconsciously learn to love the music, too. I know I have bought more than 10 songs from the Guitar Hero sound track after playing the game. I guess for now I’ll keep supporting the recording industry and it’s musicians by buying whole albums and paying full price online for any music I download. It’s the least I could do.