Enjoy the peak. More to come soon…

Source http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Fragmented-World-of-Digital-Music-INFOGRAPHIC/1977319

Source: http://vimeo.com/28885524

Infographic by James West and Animated version by Len Henriksen

Deadmau5, Skrillex to most people over 30 those names might not mean much. But electronic dance music, or E.D.M., is having its day as the sound of young America.

Electronic dance music (EDM) is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment.

Yet the rise of E.D.M. also reflects the shifting ground of the music industry, in which big record labels are no longer the primary career makers, and a young, hyperdigital generation of acts has its eyes on more distant and prestigious prizes like film scoring. Their hoped-for career trajectory would be not unlike that of, say, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, but accomplished in a year or two instead of decades.

Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/arts/music/prodigies-leap-beyond-electronic-dance-music.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1346198469-heErL7jOKaDL8Parn6d5mg

The music industry has taken a serious hit in recent years. Illegal downloading brought a once vibrant industry to its knees. Yet, despite being the first victim of the digital revolution, somehow the music industry is still standing, finding new revenue streams and branching out.

What the music industry had to find was how to make a generation who have never paid for music to start doing so. So how do you manage to get people to pay for music?

Convenience. Cloud music services give you access to an unbelievable amount of music to a variety of devices. You can have the same- or different- music on your computer, MP3 player, smart phone, games console, ipad, ipod and set-top boxes.  You can have a vast library of music that you never lose because you are using a cloud service. Will people pay for that?

It would seem so. Spotify has become hugely popular. Google have launched a competitor to iTunes. Other subscription music services are Songl, Deezer and MOG. Another benefit for these sites are that they are legal.  If you really love music most people are happy to pay for it to some degree.
Subscription based cloud music services have been gaining on free search engines like Torrents and Limewire where people can download music illegally.

Apparently Google also plans to release a wireless stereo streaming system for peoples homes which would carry its own radio service. Amazon, ever the frontrunner, has announced a cloud-based music service that will allow people to store their music and then access it anywhere. Cloud based music subscription allow users access to millions of tracks for a monthly fee. These are gaining traction. The music industry is not just being saved by the digital revolution,it is helping to evolve the music industry.

Source: http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2012/07/will-the-cloud-save-the-music-industry/#ixzz21rl7z0RQ

“Polaroid co-founder Edwin Land said, “The test of an invention is the power of [the] inventor to push it through in the face of staunch – not opposition, but indifference – in society.” Great ideas and inventions are often shunned or ignored before they are accepted. It makes sense then that inventors tend to be a hearty sort: they don’t mind failure, they don’t care what others think, and they’re willing to work really damn hard.

Via 99 Percent.com What-It-Takes-To-Innovate-Wrong-Thinking-Tinkering-Intuiting

 

However, defining who the tastemakers are in our emerging  online culture is difficult. At one point, the tastemakers in our culture were the entertainment distribution giants — the executives working for distribution companies and record labels. Art and entertainment was filtered through these corporations and handed down to us, and the public had very little say in the matter.

Source : Music at Mars Hill

http://www.christandpopculture.com/music/music-at-mars-hill-who-are-the-tastemakers-today/

Let’s take a look at the song “Somebody That I Used to Know” by the Australian indie pop band Gotye. The song started out as a hit in Australia last year with indie music publications picking it up as well. It also bounced around quite a bit in the blogosphere and found some attention there. But now, the song is #5 on Billboard Hot 100 charts here in America — what happened? Did the record labels push it hard into mainstream radio stations? Did Pitchfork give it a 9.5?

 

 

Trent Reznor was one of the first major artists to break away from the music industry and go independent. In a recent interview with http://blog.tunecore.com/2012/01/trent-reznor-interview.html Reznor discusses the benefits and downsides to being and independent artist, he also gives an insiders view into what is involved when you sign a major record deal.

He added that he’s puzzled by the current state of music, but not in any way disheartened: “… I don’t know. I’m not disenchanted by things. I think in a lot of ways it’s the wild west right now, and it’s wildly exciting, and it’s interesting when something’s been disrupted this greatly, the record business. There’s limitless potential, but it also requires a lot of effort… “

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/19/internet-vs-sopa