“Widespread copyright infringement is like a generational shift and ignorance of existing law, similar to massive experimentation with illegal drugs in the 1960s,” says Stephen Witt, author of How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, The Turn of the Century and the Patient Zero of Piracy. The book was named on the “Best of the Year” lists of The Washington Post, Forbes, Slate, The Atlantic, Financial Times and others.
How Music’s Digital Shift Rapidly Impacted The Industry
The Ghost In The MP3: See What’s Missing In Your Audio
The Ghost In The MP3 also known as modernist is an experiment by Ryan Patrick Maguire where he collects the bits of data that are erased during the MP3 and MP4 compression processes that make our files smaller and plays them back as a standalone file. This results in a hazy, ghostly audio and video of the discarded bits of data that are erased when a file is compressed that sounds and looks like it’s trapped in another dimension.
The Culture of Free: A Look Back At Napster & Its Impact On Music
This NY Times Retro Report documentary short takes a look back at the beginnings of the file-sharing program Napster which began in 1999 and its strong impact on the music industry, artists and music buying fans.
DRM Chair Makes A Statement
What would the world be like if we applied the DRM concept of access control technology – that has become so popularly applied [and hated] to digital music for instance, to other everyday things?
Music Fuels Innovation: Download The New 2013 Digital Music Report
The IFPI [International Federation of the Phonographic Industry] has released a new report the finds that in 2012, the global music industry experienced it’s first rise in revenues since 1999. Although it’s not much of an increase, just 0.3 percent, the news of increased profits has been long overdue – 13 years in the making.
1.65 Billion Music Purchases Took Place in 2012
Over 1.65 billion music purchases took place in the U.S. in 2012, an all time high according to a new report just released from Nielsen and Billboard. Physical albums, digital albums and digital songs accounted for the sales figures which are up overall 3.1% from 2011.
The World Of Online Music
Enter the world of online music, see this graphical breakdown with some stats of the music industry’s current ecosystem to help put some things in perspective. For instance, did you know the iTunes store has 20 million tracks for sale?