Music is Changing For The Better

Oh did hear the leak for the new (insert album here)? This is a normal question I ask anyone of my music friends almost daily. For artists, this seems to be a problem. With the invention of napster, LimeWire, and FrostWire one could download the discography of any artists within hours. For people in the industry and artists it has caused so many problems. It has forced both to find new and more creative ways to make money. In my opinion illegally downloading, music, while not ethical has made music more popular than ever.

Starting off it has forced much more artists to focus on the live performance. This in my opinion is one of the great causes of illegal downloading. More people have access to as much music as they desire. Take for example Chicago’s own Lollapalooza. I dare you to name a better place to enjoy music then the first weekend in August for Lollapalooza. It not only introduced me to many different bands but gave me access to see bands that I love dearly. Below is a video of a classic song Everlong by the Foo Fighters.

As you can see this performance is much more vibrant and alive than a recorded version. It is people alive and kicking performing a adored song. Plus, it starts raining during, which makes for an awesome scene to end Lollapalooza 2011. 

The last key aspect artists need to adopt is by branding yourself. This means going across social networks and being active. Let’s look at an example from my favorite rap collective, Odd Future. As a group who are all 25 and under they take advantage of all the new technologies. First, to promote their album they excessively tweet and promote through social networks. With Odd Future so large and a cult following they are able to garner much attention for new projects. Plus they make videos for singles instead of through the radio. Also the leader Tyler the Creator designs all the clothing and items on sale on the Odd Future Website and is responsible for the Odd Future store in Los Angeles.

Moving forward artists and people in the music business just need to learn to come up with new ways to attract fans. Just like a lot of forms of media, technology is making the music better, not worse.