2003-07-11

The advancement of the Digital World has indeed had an incredible impact upon the music industry, with dramatical effects. Some changes that are taking place include the removal of the geographic boundaries that have traditionally existed with the current copyright system, and the redistribution of income within the industry. It can be seen that attempting to maintain excludibilty using copyrights on music is no longer feasible. Artists and authors should therefore attempt to reap the rewards of their creative intellectual property by evolving and taking advantage of what the internet can offer rather than treating it as an infliction upon the industry structure as it was. The need for intermediaries will not vanish but their importance will lessen. It seems at present that the Steven King strategy will become more popular amongst artists, but the main transformation will occur when the Big Five join forces so that all labels will be available from the same source. Battles against piracy will continue to be problematic particuarly while the cost of music is dear. It is hoped that in the future it will be possible that consumers will pay lower prices for both physical and digital products and as a result be rewarded with a broader variety of music.