The Internet: Killing The Music Industry?

Every day, we hear about an album leaking, a band or artist begging for mercy from the masses, record sales falling, and pissed off music moguls. The internet seems to be ripping the music industry as our parent knew it asunder. Kids no longer go out and buy CDs from their local music stores; why bother leaving the comfort of our homes? Indeed, hardly anyone even buys music anymore. With applications like Limewire, and zShare available, kids don't spend their money or their parents' money on music anymore. And although the industry insists, that their will be repercussions for illegal downloading, they are rarely seen by the average kid.

Artists certainly suffer and benefit from the internet. On the one hand, their albums sales drop dramatically with illegal downloading and it seems nearly impossible these days to keep an album secret until the release date. Bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic At The Disco have both had their newest albums leak long before they were due to release. On the other hand, artists are often discovered because of their internet status. MySpace has spread music, for better or worse, far beyond what anyone could have imagined 10, even 5 years ago. With the click of a mouse, you could be listening to a new and upcoming band, and with another you could purchase their album. Many people believe that this is also a double edged sword; because anyone can post music on the internet, everyone does, for better or worse. People who have no business making music are getting more plays every day; Tila Tequila, the self-made queen of MySpace, has an album. That should tell you something.

Whether the internet is slowly poisoning the well of the music industry or not, it is clear that it has redefined how people listen to music. Nearly every kid, and adult for that matter, around the world has an iPod. People no longer trade CDs or cassettes, they trade files. The word "record" has become foreign to today's youth. The days of "Video Killed The Radio Star" are long gone, and the web is quickly becoming the King Of The Airwaves.