Impact of Technology on Music

Impact of Technology on Music

The introduction to the internet in the early nineties and the creation of broadband, MP3, and the file sharing network known as “peer to peer” has completely revolutionised the music industry. A large percentage of music is today downloaded over the internet, and not bought over the counter in a record store. This essay will address the impact of new technology on music, and how music is distributed. To do this, the paper will first briefly explain the history of the digital revolution. Then it will contrast the problems and the possibilities this technology has created.

Over the years, the development of new technology has caused significant changes to the world we are living in. These technological advancements affect us to different degrees and in different ways. In recent years, the development of new technology has caused significant changes to the music industry. For three quarters of a century, records were made by a process now known as analogue recording. This process was replaced by digital recording in 1976. The initial advantage of digital recording was that it offered a more accurate way to reproduce sound. A few years later, in 1983, the compact disc was invented and it was now possible to store digital sound on a digital medium. This was widely thought of as the completion of the digital revolution (Teachout, 2002).

The birth of the CD wasn’t the end of the digital revolution. There were bigger and more important innovations in the horizon. The evolution of the internet was on its way, and the possibilities of this medium were almost unlimited (Sutherland, 2004). The development of the internet, broadband, MP3, and then the different ways to share music with each other create...

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