Music Consumption

• what do we mean by music consumption?

Music consumption means the methods we use to listen to music. From downloading, to listening to the radio to playing CDs.

• Before the technological revolution so to speak, how was music consumed?

Before the technological revolution when we bought music we had a physical copy of the music. The only music we had access to was those we owned and those of friends and family. Individual songs only existed within the context of the other songs on the mix tape, radio playlist, or album.  Since, more often than not, the singles from the album were the only songs that existed outside of the album, most of the casual fans of an artist never listened to or came into to contact with the other songs on it. 

•  What is the digital revolution?

The Digital Revolution refers to the advancement of technology from analogy electronic and mechanical devices to the digital technology available today. The era started to during the 1980s and is on going. The Digital Revolution is sometimes also called the Third Industrial Revolution. The development and advancement of digital technologies started with one fundamental idea: The Internet.

• How has this transformed the ways in which audiences consume music?

   The evo­lu­tion of tech­nology has changed the way we listen to our favorite songs and interact with music. An example of this is when Justin Bieber got dis­cov­ered through YouTube and became one of the top-​​selling artists of all time.       Online ser­vices that allow people access to music every­where, any­time is quickly trans­forming the music industry and the way we relate to music. The fact that recorded music is more acces­sible now than ever before, how­ever, does not nec­es­sarily diminish the value of the music expe­ri­ence. From the record labels’ point of view, the value of the recorded music busi­ness has cer­tainly dimin­ished, but from music lis­teners’ point of view, it is the oppo­site. Legal sub­scrip­tion ser­vices such as Pan­dora and Spo­tify make it pos­sible for music lis­teners to expe­ri­ence sounds and genres they hardly would have encoun­tered in the 20th-​​century music economy. Their music expe­ri­ence is more diverse and more omnipresent than ever. Research shows that music con­sumers of today do not spend less money on music com­pared to a decade ago — they simply spend that money dif­fer­ently.    

• Along with digital consumption, what other ways do people still consume music and it's related products today? CD sales? Concert tickets?

Fans show support to their favourite artists by buying concert tickets, which are often expensive. It is also common for people to travel great distances just to get to see this favourite artists live in concert. Although CD sales have declined, they are still popular with many people. Some people prefer to have a physical copy rather than a digital download saved on their computer.