If Shirky is right, and we’re headed to a period where social media tools like YouTube, Flickr, and social networks like Facebook become “invisible,” what’s the impact on things you spend money on as consumers? Books? Movies? Music?
As technology progresses, it is easier & easier to get things for free. Books are online, movies can be streamed, music can be downloaded. If you have a computer & the technology to explore the internet, you have a good advantage to find things for free. As consumers, this impacts us (especially college students who are broke) because we are always looking for free things! The fact that we no longer have to go to a store and buy a CD for $15 allows us to spend that $15 elsewhere. Personally, I don't use limewire, but that doesn't mean I can't get music for free. Websites such as Grooveshark, Pandora, and iMeem provide plenty of options for streaming music online. Not to mention that we are now able to burn CDs & "share" music online without much of a hassle at all. Social networking sites like Facebook even allow you to stream music. Bands put up pages & release their music exclusively on facebook to draw an audience.
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Your post gets interesting at the end - you've caught on to something I was looking for! Bands are releasing their music for free.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens 5 years from now when getting access to new music is just automatic and a given? Will the music industry die? Or will something more valuable come to the front? Who's to say.
We may be paying at that point for more quality (higher bitrate music), for access (interviews with the bands), or extended mixes.