For a long time, I thought there were two clans. The clan of those who loved music and respected it by buying CDs, which I belonged to, and the clan of those who desecrated this art by downloading every possible song they liked. I wasn’t wrong...but I was definitely too stubborn !
Music means the world to me, and I've always been reluctant to the idea of listening to it thanks to the Internet. I blame the new technologies for the crisis that the music industry is facing. But who doesn’t ? The french marketplace has lost 50% of its worth since 2002, a year that corresponds to the expansion of the ADSL in France. What a coincidence ! By enabling people to download music freely, the Internet has started up a revolution. It is not the first time that progress imposes its rules on art : CDs replaced EPs and LPs and we didn’t make a big deal out of it. But this time, we moved from a material support to a digital and virtual one, which totally changed the way we used to relate to music. I must say that it makes me feel nostalgic...
I’ve always believed that the happiness of listening to a record could only be achieved by holding the jacket and the leaflet that contains the lyrics while the music played. My first musical memory goes back to Michael Jackson’s HIStory album, and I’m not saying that because he died few months ago. I’m evoking this personal memory just to show how powerful the whole concept of a CD is. I perfectly remember the pictures of Michael Jackson dressed up as a creepy nocturnal creature, without really understanding why, and I also remember asking my mother who was the evil man laughing at the end of Thriller. Would I be able to write about such specific details if this album would have been downloaded on my computer ? Probably, because it was such a good one, but maybe not that well.
My point is, ever since music emancipated itself from its material support, we tend to consider it as ephemeral. Songs became something we consume, and the sacred dimension of music is vanishing away because we take it for granted. You will never throw away a CD, but you don’t mind deleting music on your computer, do you ? To a certain extend, I wonder if this new tendency could have an impact on musical creativity. Internet is a great way for artists to promote their music by using platforms such as Myspace or social networks like Facebook and it gives to the amateurs a visibility that the other media can’t afford them. But the Internet is offering so much to the music lovers that it became difficult for the artists to keep on satisfying their audience. They have to come up with new songs very frequently so that people don’t forget them. Instead of thinking about the message they want to deliver, many artists are just struggling to stay afloat. I’m actually passionate about rap music, and I noticed this phenomenon with mainstream singers like T-Pain who always manage to do new songs by collaborating with trendy artists. But while they’re busy trying to stay on Twitter’s trending topics, they forget about real music.
But limiting the impact of the Internet on music to a criticism of free downloading would be simplistic. I had to wonder why people felt they needed to download the albums they liked instead of buying them. Beyond the money criterion, I think the CD simply became outdated and was doomed to disappear anyway because of a social reason. People are getting used to progress and CDs don’t match with the idea of the unconditional freedom that digitisation is offering. They require to do things from what we already emancipated ourselves, like carrying them around while we can have thousands of songs on one single MP3 player.
The Internet put the music industry through a lot, but paradoxically, it also represents the answer to its crisis. The real challenge now is for the music industry to find ways to promote its projects by using the same media that brought them down. Legal downloading is becoming more and more popular, but doesn’t make up for all the money lost. On the other hand, the websites that provide free and unlimited music without downloading are a way for the record companies to be present online without jeopardizing their economy. Indeed, these streaming websites are totally legal because they are financed by the advertisers and respect the copyrights. What is interesting about the streaming is that it gives a feeling of freedom to the people, without placing them as the owners of the music they listen to. The notion of buying is not excluded on deezer.com or jiwa.fr because they propose to their users to buy CDs or concert tickets on websites like fnac.com. I recently learned while reading an article that people who frequently use streaming music services are more likely to buy CDs because they have the opportunity to listen to them easily and that they discover new artists everyday.
So even if it still means a lot to me to buy a Stevie Wonder album, and if I still care about my old stereo, I think that the impact of the Internet on music can also be positive. The connection between music and us is definitely different now. But it is still there, it is even growing stronger, and that is what truly matters to me.
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