March 14, 2011 in Digital Music by admin
The History Of Digital Music Distribution
The authorized digital music distribution gained momentum in the late 90s, when the majority of the households in the developed countries already owned a computer and had Internet connection. In those days, the increasing processing power and larger storage hard drives of the personal computers and the improvement in the media file compression technologies, led to the development of the first large peer-to-peer networks. They connected users from around the World in a network, which allowed them to download or upload files from each other quickly and effortlessly. These P2P networks were used by millions and the unauthorized sharing of audio and video files was threatening the record and the movie industry. It was not long before the RIAA took legal actions against some of the large peer-to-peer file sharing programs and distribution networks, which in turn led to the development of the authorized digital music distribution channels, even though many newer file-sharing methods that were designed to circumvent the authorities were developed as well.
The legal actions against the operators like Napster were effective since these networks were centralized and the companies that ran them were found responsible for piracy. The subsequent download systems were not centralized and that made prosecuting its participants legally far more challenging. However, what proved far more effective in the fight against piracy were the legal music stores, which allowed people from around the Globe to pay for a single song download instead of purchasing entire CDs or albums. With most of these stores pricing a download at less than a dollar per song, hunting for an illegal copy of the same song simply became pointless for the great majority of the music lovers. The now revamped Napster and the Apples iTunes music stores let users download tracks or albums to their computers, Macs, iPhones, or other mobile devices. Many new authorized services decided to use the already established peer-to-peer networks to distribute songs to the existing vast network of users, which allowed them to reach a far larger audience and cut down on their advertising and bandwidth costs. It is unquestionable that the Internet and some of the digital music distribution methods caused some damage, but they also offered new and less costly ways for independent artists to promote and sell their work.
