The beginnings of music technology and consumption originated in the late 1800s with Thomas Edison’s ingenious phonograph. Over a course of seventy-five years, the phonograph has received many upgrades and has even become a basis for the recent music technology today (Price and Albright para. 5). Some of the newer music technological advances include vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, portable MP3 players, and streaming services, which have all revolutionized music consumption because they have gradually made music prevalent in people’s daily lives. People are now able to listen to high quality music on-the-go through streaming services as opposed to having to haul around bulky tapes or CDs. Music technology has drastically evolved from vinyl
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In response to this problem, popular musicians like Taylor Swift have decided to remove their music off of streaming services. In 2014, Taylor Swift withdrew her music off of Spotify because she felt that it was robbing her of her control and earnings (Flanagan 4). Swift also expressed her opinion about this issue when she said, “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for...It’s my opinion that music should not be free,” which means that she is not willing to let Spotify and other services undermine the hard work and dedication that she embeds into her music (Garthright et al para. 9). Despite her strong belief that music has great value, Taylor recently restored her music back on Spotify in June of 2017 (Garthright et al para. 9). She has not stated her reasons why she returned to the streaming service, but many people have speculated that her decision was to prepare for the release of her newest album, Reputation. Although her action contradicts her previous statement about the importance of giving credit to artists, this shows the influence that streaming services have in the music world today because they allow people to be exposed to new music. Because of the convenience of music through streaming services like Pandora and Spotify, more people are able to listen to music while artists are unable to gain as much profit as they used to in their music
In response to this problem, popular musicians like Taylor Swift have decided to remove their music off of streaming services. In 2014, Taylor Swift withdrew her music off of Spotify because she felt that it was robbing her of her control and earnings (Flanagan 4). Swift also expressed her opinion about this issue when she said, “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for...It’s my opinion that music should not be free,” which means that she is not willing to let Spotify and other services undermine the hard work and dedication that she embeds into her music (Garthright et al para. 9). Despite her strong belief that music has great value, Taylor recently restored her music back on Spotify in June of 2017 (Garthright et al para. 9). She has not stated her reasons why she returned to the streaming service, but many people have speculated that her decision was to prepare for the release of her newest album, Reputation. Although her action contradicts her previous statement about the importance of giving credit to artists, this shows the influence that streaming services have in the music world today because they allow people to be exposed to new music. Because of the convenience of music through streaming services like Pandora and Spotify, more people are able to listen to music while artists are unable to gain as much profit as they used to in their music