Essay 3 – Social Media and the Future of Music

There are many big record companies in the world, and they are proud of their professional music producers and megastars. But they focus on their business ideas and profits, and it means that their music products are based on the popularity and for the most consumers, not everyone. So consumers can only choose the special products which attract them from the popular music. The social media, especially the Internet, can help everyone to produce and choose different kinds of music; and after they produce it, they can share it with their friends through the social media.

Consumers who live in different places have different tastes and habits about the music. Some of them may like the old-fashion music, but the traditional music industry only considers the common taste and habit of most consumers in order to maximize their profits according to the perspective of music business, then the record companies do not want to publish the old-fashion records without business hit. And some of them may want to enjoy their own special music. The minority of consumers with special tastes does not have any other choice. Recently, with the development and acknowledgement of social media, this kind of consumers can create their own music products, and publish them on the websites free, such as YouTube. Because of the relevant property of YouTube, the audience with the same taste about music can find these works and make comments on them easily. Also the social media creates the opportunity to find the old-fashion records without the republication by the record companies. Consumers who have the old-fashion records can share them with others who want to listen to them. The social media is the bridge between the owners and searchers, and it is also the bridge between the creators or producers and consumers.

The development of social media also provides technology and device companies with the channel to enter into the music industry. For example, Nokia published its new cell phones with its new website for sharing and downloading music in China. Of course, the success of iTunes music store is famous, and Apple is not only the technology company to produce computers and hard devices, but also an active entrant of music industry. More and more technology companies become new entrants, and they are new retailers in the music industry in order to promote their products and improve their services. So the actors of modern music industry include not only the traditional publishers, retailers and consumers, but also the new device and technology companies, and lots of individual creators.

In China, there are many websites to provide the service of listening to the music online, such like http://music.sina.com.cn/yueku/, and users can listen to the music online for free, build their music spaces, and create their own favorite records, then they can share them with others and find the music quickly and conveniently next time. But if users want to download the music to own them, they must pay for them. So many record companies promote their new music through these websites before they publish the records to the market. The social media is the channel to test new music by collecting the feedback of audience before it is published.

Lusha Wang