The End of The Music Industry And the Return of Music as an Art Form

Sounds like doom and gloom eh? Not so much. No my friends, with the advent of p2p sharing sites like limewire and BitTorrent that allow you to get whatever artists and songs you want for free, the music industry as we know it is in for a change. I think we’re all aware of this, what I intend to establish is that this change will be for good.

How is this possible, you might ask? It's rather simple. Remember how rock stars used to get "money for nothing and their chicks for free"? (Apologies to Dire Straits). That was a huge draw to someone considering musicianship as a career. Make a record, get signed, play some shows, make a music video, BAM. Instant stardom. This is what the music industry was for the past 30 or so years. Music was brought to you by the radio, TV, and occasionally that friend you had at the record store. Yes, there actually was a time when Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and Pantera's "Psycho Holiday" were played on FM radio.

But all of this changed with the advent of computer popularity and the internet. For a while, the internet actually boosted album and single sales. Bands that would otherwise have gone unnoticed for lack of publicity, exposure, or a label to promote them could promote their music with their own Myspace page that allowed others to listen to samples of their music for free. It was great for a while. But then peer-to-peer, or P2P sharing programs like Limewire, Bittorrent, and Frostwire made it possible for others to share unprecedented amounts of media to anyone who agreed to the terms of service and had a high-speed internet connection. Granted, all of this is illegal by the passage of numerous Federal and State laws, but frankly you have to be downloading terabytes of media in order for your ISP to flag you for illegal downloading. It's practically impossible for the government to catch someone on an illegal downloads charge, which is why the penalties are so harsh and the fines so steep when someone is caught. There's quite a bit of media attention for it as well.

So, dear reader, you may be thinking to yourself, "ok, all of this makes sense, but what about the return of music as an art form? That I don't get." Well, I'm glad you asked.

This is my hope and aspiration for the music industry. I anticipate that, since it will become harder and harder to make a living as a musician, there will be fewer mediocre and poor musicians attempting to make music for a living, as it just wouldn't be feasible anymore. The ones that do try, will make the absolute best music that they can, maybe take some theory and composition classes at colleges, and, in short, make better music. Granted, this is a pretty optimistic hope, but I think it can happen.

One of the bands that is doing just this is a little group from Berklee School of Music in Boston, named Dream Theater. The level of musicianship, complexity of composition, and intensity of passion is simply unbelievable. A number of the band members have Bachelor's and even Master's degrees in Music Performance from Berklee, and frankly, it shows. While the setting of the music is clearly a progressive metal environment, the classical schooling they've received for their music is blatantly obvious. If more bands took the approach that Dream Theater has, I am confident that better, more accomplished music will be on the rise for popularity and music will return to an Art Form, rather than a Business or Industry.