State of the Music Industry 2011

The music industry used to be one of the most notorious of jobs that everyone desired to get into. However, now-a-days all people have to do is star on X Factor to become a star in seconds! But the real question is: How is the music industry still going? I ask this because hardly anyone buys albums or CD's anymore. This is because of the easy access to torrent sites like You Tube Converter's and Limewire. In having so much freedom to download illegally people would rather do this than pay and support their favourite artist.

The Production, Distribution and Exchange between music 10 years ago to now is very different! Back then music was appreciated soley on the artists voice and the quality of the song. However, now people are much more interested in the style of an artist and weather they are the 'It' thing. Artists in the industry today have to 'blend in' with the crowd and go with the constant changing genre of music being produced. The days where recording was only done in a studio are long gone! People can record songs on their laptop in the comfort of their own home! This then leads me onto the downloading of illegal music. Even though we have Itunes who claim their profits go to the artists when really only 5% actually go to the artist and the rest goes into the running of Itunes. I feel that sites like this should be helping struggling artist that are just starting out and not taking a large cut of the money for themselves. I see it as if they are only getting 5% I might as well download a song for free rather than pay for it on Itunes that doesn't even help the artist so either way I'm not losing out. 

Artists used to perform their songs on live shows such as, Top Of the  Pops! Now the only way to see your artsist live is if they are appearing on a chat-show or through Youtube. In my opinion, the essence of seeing your favorite artist live now-a-days is lost as you can only book to see them in expensive concerts.