Why does music affect our emotions? In our stressful lifestyle, how can we use sounds and music to calm and relax? Composer Martin Mayer looks at the relationship between music and relaxation.
Music is the key to a thousand emotions. We associate music with the places we have been, the times we have experienced and the people in our lives. Music is all around us. There is no denying the effectiveness of music, so why not use it to affect our own emotions and enhance our personal environment? Relaxing music, relaxation music, meditation music... call it what you will. There is no question that it can help us to shape our environment effectively and can be changed to suit or influence our mood.
In today’s society, wherever there is radio, television, cinema or the internet, we will be exposed to music. Music is all around us and is a commodity so important that is used by virtually every company on the planet to sell us their products and services. Very often we are completely oblivious to the sounds drifting out of those in-store speakers or the impact and drama of an action-movie soundtrack placed in a car advert. Music is a complex language that can convey any emotion or conjure a response from any audience. At the same time music is simple and universally understandable.
We are used to others using music to influence our emotions and therefore decisions. However, we rarely use music's benefits to help ourselves. Relaxing music or relaxation music (also known as new age music) can be used to relieve stress, unwind after a hard day at work, promote good sleep or as a focus of concentration during yoga or meditation. As a composer, the idea of music for relaxation has fascinated me. For a long time, I have researched the benefits of music for health and wellbeing. Music is just a part of relaxation, but can be the key to calm and relax mind and body.
Positive healing effects of music have been suggested since ancient times. In the beliefs of Ancient Greece, Apollo was God of medicine and music. It was believed that music had the power to penetrate the soul. According to Plato, Pythagoras practiced a system of sound and music used to cure disease and encourage spiritual health. The Egyptians also believed in the link between medicine and music. The relationship between sound and healing was held sacred.
I am not a healer and I make no claims of the medicinal power of music. To me, music is a powerful tool which can shape emotion and influence moods in ourselves and others around us. It is a powerful positive force that you can harness to aid relaxation and provide a release from stress. Relaxation techniques often rely on music as a spark. Which technique you use depends on your lifestyle and the time you have to yourself.
A good habit can be built; find a quiet room, put work worries to one side and allow yourself time to unwind - dim the lights, light some candles or incense or whatever you find calming. Close your eyes and focus on the sound of your breath. Take in the same amount of air but breathe slightly longer breaths, less often. Relaxing music is a great focus for an exercise like this or any relaxation technique. Listen to relaxation music at a volume level that is high enough to mask any background noise but not so high as to be overbearing. In a busy workplace or home, headphones are useful.
The music should not be too distracting and should be carefully composed to be easy to listen to. I recommend that you use music that is slow and preferably without a heavy beat. However, it should be interesting and different enough to capture the imagination and become a suitable focus for relief. Nature sounds enhance the experience as they help you to imagine a place of peace, calm, tranquillity and serenity. It is best to use music written specifically for relaxation, although you could use any music that you find particularly relaxing. This technique is most useful if it can be practiced for a significant amount of time - more than half an hour. However, it can be effective if used for just a few minutes at break times.
Having said all this, no two people are the same. Relaxation and the way we achieve it is different for every one of us. Whatever music you choose should enable you to escape from the stress of everyday life. It should help you to put your worries aside and recharge; physically and emotionally. Whether this is relaxing, new age music, folk, pop or rock is up to you. The simple act of making time to absorb the music is most important. The music also helps to build a barrier between you and the distractions around you.
The music becomes a shield and backdrop for your relaxation.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Free MP3 Downloads - An On Line Guide
Whatever your taste in music, now that the legalities have been sorted, this article describes how to get free downloads of your favorite music. You can choose from different genres from rock/pop and alternative/indie to hard rock/metal and hip-hop, and even to soul, urban, Latin, and more.
With the price of audio recordings today, there's absolutely nothing like free music. Free MP3 music has been all the rage, heightening music-mania all over the world.
Of course there have been some controversies involving the questionable legality of peer-to-peer sharing of free files, e.g. the issue on Napster, but all that has been remedied when intellectual property laws were modified to cover copyrighted materials online.
So now, sharing free music and downloading them from legal websites is completely legit.
But there's more to it than that. Just as you can use your car stereo system as a learning station, so instead of music you listen to training tapes while you drive, with an MP3 you can now do this anywhere.
In the gym, walking the dog, cutting the grass, jogging, or even while you are in bed!So what's a free MP3 file anyway?MP3 actually stands for MPEG -1/2 Audio Layer 3 and it is also referred to as MPG3, MPG-3, MPG Level 3, MPG Level III, MPEG 3, etc. Essentially, it is an audio file compressed into tiny bits using the same fractal-based algorithms for compressing photographs into JPG format.
There's MP3.com, of course, which is perhaps one of the largest online music community in the world. The site features free MP3 album streaming and videos.
You can choose from different genres from rock/pop and alternative/indie to hardrock/metal and hip-hop, and even to soul, urban, latin, and more.
You can also check out some cool MP3 players so you can play all your free MP3 music downloads anywhere you want, anytime you want.
With the price of audio recordings today, there's absolutely nothing like free music. Free MP3 music has been all the rage, heightening music-mania all over the world.
Of course there have been some controversies involving the questionable legality of peer-to-peer sharing of free files, e.g. the issue on Napster, but all that has been remedied when intellectual property laws were modified to cover copyrighted materials online.
So now, sharing free music and downloading them from legal websites is completely legit.
But there's more to it than that. Just as you can use your car stereo system as a learning station, so instead of music you listen to training tapes while you drive, with an MP3 you can now do this anywhere.
In the gym, walking the dog, cutting the grass, jogging, or even while you are in bed!So what's a free MP3 file anyway?MP3 actually stands for MPEG -1/2 Audio Layer 3 and it is also referred to as MPG3, MPG-3, MPG Level 3, MPG Level III, MPEG 3, etc. Essentially, it is an audio file compressed into tiny bits using the same fractal-based algorithms for compressing photographs into JPG format.
Like JPG, free MP3 files have a slightly loose format. This means that the final sound of a free MP3 file is not quite the same as that of its source.
However, the difference between the sound of a free MP3 file and that of a conventional WAV file are usually too subtle for human discernment. In fact, only particularly trained listeners can distinguish the slightly different sound of a free MP3 file from that of its source.
This makes a free MP3 music perfect to listen to even when you're at home, in the subway, or while driving.
So, where can I get free MP3 music for myself?The Internet is practically crawling with websites that offer
free MP3 downloads.There's MP3.com, of course, which is perhaps one of the largest online music community in the world. The site features free MP3 album streaming and videos.
You can choose from different genres from rock/pop and alternative/indie to hardrock/metal and hip-hop, and even to soul, urban, latin, and more.
You can also check out some cool MP3 players so you can play all your free MP3 music downloads anywhere you want, anytime you want.
Then, there's Nullsoft's popular Winamp free MP3 collection. Not only does Winamp feature free MP3 music, but they also let you download their free MP3 winamp player, complete with ultra-phat skins and visualizations.
Aside from that, Winamp also features some great plug-ins to give your free MP3 player some fabulous additions, like an i-pod interface, language packs, midi control and more.
Another great site for free MP3 music is Epitonic. In addition to their wide variety of free MP3 files
There are dozens and dozens of sites that offer free MP3 for the music fan.
Just be careful though because there are as many websites of questionable legality as there are egitimate sites.
The internet is proving to be veritable distributor of everything digital.
As my parents used to say - Whatever Next?
Free Sheet Music On The Net - Truth or Fiction?
Typing “free sheet music” into google or any other search engine will have tempted anyone looking for sheet music on the net. And indeed, the search engines respond by giving us page after page of hits. But what does the user really get on these pages - and is it legal?This article has a look at the current state of “free sheet music downloads”.
The search “free sheet music” (without the inverted commas) on google spews out an impressive 17,300,000 pages. Even the most inexperienced internet-user will immediately realize that the truth cannot be quite so bountiful. I click on the first hit on google (results on yahoo and msn will differ) and am promised thousands of downloadable scores. On closer inspection this turns out to be a number of Irish tunes at most, with most of the promised pieces in fact consisting of links to more so called “free sites”. Funnily enough the owner of the website at one point even points out not to send him any nasty e-mails about the lack of free scores on the site. So let’s try the second hit.
After navigating round the site promising me free scores, I always end up on a page telling me that all of these scores are free to download - for a small fee of 20 Dollars a year. As a user I am starting to feel confused - I haven’t seen a single piece of sheet music. Can I trust this site? What would the quality of the scores be if I paid the 20 Dollars?Frustrated, I move on to the next search engine result. This site at least has the courage to tell me on the main page that the so-called free scores will cost me 30 dollars a year, yet once again, I fail to detect a single quaver or treble clef. No scores are available for preview. This is starting to remind me of the “free DVD” I get with my Sunday paper. Only that I have to purchase the Sunday paper first.
Yet another site turns out to be just like the first, the promised pieces of sheet music being links to more so-called free sheet music sites. I am starting to get bored of being re-directed. Aren’t there any sheet music sites out there?The story of my search continues in similar fashion, until I encounter a site that does offer sheet music, albeit a limited quantity. I download a score only to find that the graphics aren’t quite where they should be, and this makes me wonder about the general quality of the scores and the arrangements that are available. Indeed. Why should anyone create a score and put any effort into the arrangement and editing, if they aren’t making any money through direct sales?Even other hits take me to a site where I am charged $1.60 for the “privilege” of downloading a badly scanned copy of a Bach composition. Hm.Frighteningly, I also find a site that offers extremely basic versions of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and other music that is in fact still under copyright. This website is clearly an illegal operation, and one that might find itself in the crosshairs of the Music Publishers' Association (MPA). The MPA, as highlighted in a recent article on the BBC Website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4524086.stm) is intending to clamp down on websites selling music still under copyright, or where the arrangements are still under copyright. In a way the publishing world is doing what record labels started a few years ago by actively prosecuting those participating in illegal download of sheet music.
I eventually find a project similar to the Gutenberg Project where people contribute scores freely. The quality seems ok, but I am restricted to pieces by a handful of classical composers, and with anything relying on donations and free contributions, I doubt there are regular updates. However, as with Wikipedia, the authenticity of the product has to come into question. The standard review process that an encyclopaedia has and Wikipedia and other websites dependent on volunteers lack will have to be considered when downloading scores (or any other information for that matter) for free: does the end-user believe all the notes are accurate? When the founder of Wikipedia himself was found to manipulate information on the very site how much can these so-called democratic sites be trusted? Obviously no one would benefit from changing a note in a score, so no one would deliberately manipulate a piece of music. But what are the skill levels of those involved in the creation of these scores? It is highly unlikely that a trained musician would edit these - he would be destroying his own industry to a certain extent. Furthermore I will not be able to find simplified arrangements of a piece, as this is a time-consuming effort, and anyone engaging in such an operation would clearly charge for the service.
After many days of searching, I give up in my quest in search of good free scores.
But what is one to make of all this? Why are there so many sites that don’t actually sell anything, and what is the point of them?The problem is created by advertising. The people who run these sites own the most obvious url titles (i.e. the web site address) that one might type in when looking for free scores. As an example: if you were looking for free glasses, one might type in www.freeglasses.com. Hence, these sites get a lot of direct traffic. Furthermore they have also done a very good job at search engine optimisation, which makes you wonder whether google and Co are actually missing a trick here. Yet as these sites have nothing to sell they try and get the frustrated user to click on one of the many adverts, and many of these are so-called google ads.
Every time someone clicks on one of these ads or paid-for links, the aforementioned website earns a small amount of money (so-called click-through). What is even more disconcerting is that some of these ads lead to legitimate sheet music download sites, making it even harder for the user to distinguish between the real thing and some dodgy operation trying to make a buck on click-throughs. This clearly does not help the industry.
Well, what about those free scores then? Well, there are some out there, basically a handful to be found on the five or six legitimate sites that are out there. These sites have the highest quality in terms of the arrangements, the quality of the score both graphically and in print-out quality. So why no free scores?Think about it: why should anyone go through the effort of eitherA) scanning hundreds and thousands of pages of music, and then offering them for free?Or B) creating hundreds and thousands of arrangements for free?Exactly. If you were to upload loads of tunes, you’d want to make money out of it.
The search “free sheet music” (without the inverted commas) on google spews out an impressive 17,300,000 pages. Even the most inexperienced internet-user will immediately realize that the truth cannot be quite so bountiful. I click on the first hit on google (results on yahoo and msn will differ) and am promised thousands of downloadable scores. On closer inspection this turns out to be a number of Irish tunes at most, with most of the promised pieces in fact consisting of links to more so called “free sites”. Funnily enough the owner of the website at one point even points out not to send him any nasty e-mails about the lack of free scores on the site. So let’s try the second hit.
After navigating round the site promising me free scores, I always end up on a page telling me that all of these scores are free to download - for a small fee of 20 Dollars a year. As a user I am starting to feel confused - I haven’t seen a single piece of sheet music. Can I trust this site? What would the quality of the scores be if I paid the 20 Dollars?Frustrated, I move on to the next search engine result. This site at least has the courage to tell me on the main page that the so-called free scores will cost me 30 dollars a year, yet once again, I fail to detect a single quaver or treble clef. No scores are available for preview. This is starting to remind me of the “free DVD” I get with my Sunday paper. Only that I have to purchase the Sunday paper first.
Yet another site turns out to be just like the first, the promised pieces of sheet music being links to more so-called free sheet music sites. I am starting to get bored of being re-directed. Aren’t there any sheet music sites out there?The story of my search continues in similar fashion, until I encounter a site that does offer sheet music, albeit a limited quantity. I download a score only to find that the graphics aren’t quite where they should be, and this makes me wonder about the general quality of the scores and the arrangements that are available. Indeed. Why should anyone create a score and put any effort into the arrangement and editing, if they aren’t making any money through direct sales?Even other hits take me to a site where I am charged $1.60 for the “privilege” of downloading a badly scanned copy of a Bach composition. Hm.Frighteningly, I also find a site that offers extremely basic versions of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and other music that is in fact still under copyright. This website is clearly an illegal operation, and one that might find itself in the crosshairs of the Music Publishers' Association (MPA). The MPA, as highlighted in a recent article on the BBC Website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4524086.stm) is intending to clamp down on websites selling music still under copyright, or where the arrangements are still under copyright. In a way the publishing world is doing what record labels started a few years ago by actively prosecuting those participating in illegal download of sheet music.
I eventually find a project similar to the Gutenberg Project where people contribute scores freely. The quality seems ok, but I am restricted to pieces by a handful of classical composers, and with anything relying on donations and free contributions, I doubt there are regular updates. However, as with Wikipedia, the authenticity of the product has to come into question. The standard review process that an encyclopaedia has and Wikipedia and other websites dependent on volunteers lack will have to be considered when downloading scores (or any other information for that matter) for free: does the end-user believe all the notes are accurate? When the founder of Wikipedia himself was found to manipulate information on the very site how much can these so-called democratic sites be trusted? Obviously no one would benefit from changing a note in a score, so no one would deliberately manipulate a piece of music. But what are the skill levels of those involved in the creation of these scores? It is highly unlikely that a trained musician would edit these - he would be destroying his own industry to a certain extent. Furthermore I will not be able to find simplified arrangements of a piece, as this is a time-consuming effort, and anyone engaging in such an operation would clearly charge for the service.
After many days of searching, I give up in my quest in search of good free scores.
But what is one to make of all this? Why are there so many sites that don’t actually sell anything, and what is the point of them?The problem is created by advertising. The people who run these sites own the most obvious url titles (i.e. the web site address) that one might type in when looking for free scores. As an example: if you were looking for free glasses, one might type in www.freeglasses.com. Hence, these sites get a lot of direct traffic. Furthermore they have also done a very good job at search engine optimisation, which makes you wonder whether google and Co are actually missing a trick here. Yet as these sites have nothing to sell they try and get the frustrated user to click on one of the many adverts, and many of these are so-called google ads.
Every time someone clicks on one of these ads or paid-for links, the aforementioned website earns a small amount of money (so-called click-through). What is even more disconcerting is that some of these ads lead to legitimate sheet music download sites, making it even harder for the user to distinguish between the real thing and some dodgy operation trying to make a buck on click-throughs. This clearly does not help the industry.
Well, what about those free scores then? Well, there are some out there, basically a handful to be found on the five or six legitimate sites that are out there. These sites have the highest quality in terms of the arrangements, the quality of the score both graphically and in print-out quality. So why no free scores?Think about it: why should anyone go through the effort of eitherA) scanning hundreds and thousands of pages of music, and then offering them for free?Or B) creating hundreds and thousands of arrangements for free?Exactly. If you were to upload loads of tunes, you’d want to make money out of it.
Legal Music Downloads
On July 28, 2004, French Internet access providers and music copyright owners signed a joint national charter aimed at cracking down on illegal downloads and expanding the amount of legal music tracks available online (AFP). This is the latest in a series of moves taken across the world to combat music piracy as production labels see more and more of their profits being lost to illegal downloads of music files.
The music industry has been saying the same thing for several years now: peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks are exponentially distributing pirated music across the world through the Internet, and this constitutes a copyright infringement. In English, this means that the fact that I downloaded a Tori Amos track through Kazaa yesterday and am listening to it right now makes me a criminal. So far, so good. Quite true as well.
But the real problem is not that people do not want to pay for music. Often I sample new music off the Internet before buying the CDs. Chances are that if I like most of the album, I’m going to buy it. On the surface this is what radio stations do when they play music. The difference, however, is that it has become insanely easy for me to acquire almost-as-good-as-original quality mp3s of any track that I want to listen to, and even if I don’t pay a dime, no one is there to catch me.
The principle of accountability has vanished. When one sees that there are two ways to acquire the same product, but by sacrificing a ‘little’ bit of quality you can get it for free without being penalized for it, what would most rational people do? P2P networks have made finding music off the Internet ridiculously easy, and most of us tend to ‘forget’ our social responsibility when it comes to such ‘trivial’ matters. To contribute to this, copy-protection techniques used on CDs by major production houses are always a step behind the latest cracking algorithms, and steps taken to prevent ‘ripping’ of CDs and DVDs have proven fruitless so far.
Enter music downloads of the legal kind. Disregarding the small number of ‘free’ legal music available for promotional purposes, more and more artists and labels have begun to provide a pay-per-download music service. In essence, you can purchase individual tracks or complete albums through a secure online transaction and then download your ‘purchase’ and, with variable limits to personal use, pretty much do whatever you want to do with it (Several providers digitally encode the files to prevent them from being played on other computers, or to be burned onto CD-Rs)This is both a move to encourage free-riders such as me to start acquiring ‘legal’ music and an economic adjustment to the digital music revolution. Developing technologies are changing the way people perceive and use music. The advent of iPod and other mp3 players has meant that more and more people are becoming accustomed to carrying around their complete music collections with the latest players offering space for around 10,000 songs. This holds frightening possibilities for record companies. There is a very real concern within the industry that the CD format is fast going out of style, and as technology evolves, consumer demands for the best ‘medium’ will change as well. Till a few years ago audio CDs offered unparalleled music quality, a factor record companies used to encourage people to ‘buy instead of steal (download)’. However, today’s high-quality digital formats mean that audio quality is comparable, and in some cases equal to, CDs. Some experts are even starting to predict that within a decade CDs will become history as digital music will evolve to a point where we will be have access to our entire music collection (hopefully paid for) wherever we want it: in our car, at work, anywhere in the house, even on the beach. Matched with promises (and the reality) of audio quality, this is a serious threat to traditional business.
Thus, providing legal music online is a means of the industry trying to position itself to take advantage of the rising trend of portable music collections. A quick glance across major online music stores tells us exactly so. While offering free-riders affordable music (allowing them to purchase only the tracks they like instead of forcing them to buy the complete album) to ensure that they do not turn to music piracy, sites like eMusic and Apple’s iTunes are backing the new trend. iTunes, Apple’s online music store, has the added distinction of being supported by perhaps the best mp3 player in the business, the iPod. In this combination, Apple has found a very secure marketing brand and ensured that it takes full advantage of this cross between technology and music.
Legal music downloads appear to be the perfect answer to stopping music piracy, at least the downloading kind. Therefore there is no surprise when one sees major record labels pushing to expand such services. However, recent developments tend to make us question what the overall agenda really is. After a period of consolidation of the digital music market in the last two years, albums available for download online are being priced higher than they would normally be in retail stores. It used to be that you could download a song for $0.99 and a complete album for $9.99, but now stores are setting higher prices, with tracks going for $1.50 or even $2.49 and $11.50 albums being sold for $12.50 and $13.00 online. What is going on? In positioning themselves to take advantage of changing market forces, the music industry has also hit upon another major factor in determining sales: consumer behavior. Legal music downloads offer people like me the comfort of never having to waste time in retail stores looking for my favorite track from high-school days or wondering when the latest album of Nickelback would hit the shelves. Instead, all the hassles are removed with everything easily searchable, previewable and downloadable from the comfort of my computer chair (and this baby is very, very, comfortable). Consumers may not be usually rational, but they are always looking to save the effort when it comes to making any sort of purchases. Online stores (or is it the major recording labels? Who knows…) are now cashing into this very aspect of human psychology and are beginning to charge extra for a service they are portraying now as a privilege. Having already consolidated their core target market, the time has now come to increase revenues.
Would this drive people back towards music piracy? Highly unlikely. People are not evil, or criminal, by nature. Appeals to their better nature usually work, and that is the strategy adopted by agencies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) who are actively involved in putting a stop to illegal music sharing. Media campaigns encouraging music lovers to pay a dollar or two for tracks instead of ‘committing a crime’ by downloading them for free are actually working as slowly but surely, more and more people flock to online music stores. And with existing customers sticking to this more ‘comfortable’ way of buying music, the industry is finally starting to win back ground it lost due to music piracy.
The music industry has been saying the same thing for several years now: peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks are exponentially distributing pirated music across the world through the Internet, and this constitutes a copyright infringement. In English, this means that the fact that I downloaded a Tori Amos track through Kazaa yesterday and am listening to it right now makes me a criminal. So far, so good. Quite true as well.
But the real problem is not that people do not want to pay for music. Often I sample new music off the Internet before buying the CDs. Chances are that if I like most of the album, I’m going to buy it. On the surface this is what radio stations do when they play music. The difference, however, is that it has become insanely easy for me to acquire almost-as-good-as-original quality mp3s of any track that I want to listen to, and even if I don’t pay a dime, no one is there to catch me.
The principle of accountability has vanished. When one sees that there are two ways to acquire the same product, but by sacrificing a ‘little’ bit of quality you can get it for free without being penalized for it, what would most rational people do? P2P networks have made finding music off the Internet ridiculously easy, and most of us tend to ‘forget’ our social responsibility when it comes to such ‘trivial’ matters. To contribute to this, copy-protection techniques used on CDs by major production houses are always a step behind the latest cracking algorithms, and steps taken to prevent ‘ripping’ of CDs and DVDs have proven fruitless so far.
Enter music downloads of the legal kind. Disregarding the small number of ‘free’ legal music available for promotional purposes, more and more artists and labels have begun to provide a pay-per-download music service. In essence, you can purchase individual tracks or complete albums through a secure online transaction and then download your ‘purchase’ and, with variable limits to personal use, pretty much do whatever you want to do with it (Several providers digitally encode the files to prevent them from being played on other computers, or to be burned onto CD-Rs)This is both a move to encourage free-riders such as me to start acquiring ‘legal’ music and an economic adjustment to the digital music revolution. Developing technologies are changing the way people perceive and use music. The advent of iPod and other mp3 players has meant that more and more people are becoming accustomed to carrying around their complete music collections with the latest players offering space for around 10,000 songs. This holds frightening possibilities for record companies. There is a very real concern within the industry that the CD format is fast going out of style, and as technology evolves, consumer demands for the best ‘medium’ will change as well. Till a few years ago audio CDs offered unparalleled music quality, a factor record companies used to encourage people to ‘buy instead of steal (download)’. However, today’s high-quality digital formats mean that audio quality is comparable, and in some cases equal to, CDs. Some experts are even starting to predict that within a decade CDs will become history as digital music will evolve to a point where we will be have access to our entire music collection (hopefully paid for) wherever we want it: in our car, at work, anywhere in the house, even on the beach. Matched with promises (and the reality) of audio quality, this is a serious threat to traditional business.
Thus, providing legal music online is a means of the industry trying to position itself to take advantage of the rising trend of portable music collections. A quick glance across major online music stores tells us exactly so. While offering free-riders affordable music (allowing them to purchase only the tracks they like instead of forcing them to buy the complete album) to ensure that they do not turn to music piracy, sites like eMusic and Apple’s iTunes are backing the new trend. iTunes, Apple’s online music store, has the added distinction of being supported by perhaps the best mp3 player in the business, the iPod. In this combination, Apple has found a very secure marketing brand and ensured that it takes full advantage of this cross between technology and music.
Legal music downloads appear to be the perfect answer to stopping music piracy, at least the downloading kind. Therefore there is no surprise when one sees major record labels pushing to expand such services. However, recent developments tend to make us question what the overall agenda really is. After a period of consolidation of the digital music market in the last two years, albums available for download online are being priced higher than they would normally be in retail stores. It used to be that you could download a song for $0.99 and a complete album for $9.99, but now stores are setting higher prices, with tracks going for $1.50 or even $2.49 and $11.50 albums being sold for $12.50 and $13.00 online. What is going on? In positioning themselves to take advantage of changing market forces, the music industry has also hit upon another major factor in determining sales: consumer behavior. Legal music downloads offer people like me the comfort of never having to waste time in retail stores looking for my favorite track from high-school days or wondering when the latest album of Nickelback would hit the shelves. Instead, all the hassles are removed with everything easily searchable, previewable and downloadable from the comfort of my computer chair (and this baby is very, very, comfortable). Consumers may not be usually rational, but they are always looking to save the effort when it comes to making any sort of purchases. Online stores (or is it the major recording labels? Who knows…) are now cashing into this very aspect of human psychology and are beginning to charge extra for a service they are portraying now as a privilege. Having already consolidated their core target market, the time has now come to increase revenues.
Would this drive people back towards music piracy? Highly unlikely. People are not evil, or criminal, by nature. Appeals to their better nature usually work, and that is the strategy adopted by agencies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) who are actively involved in putting a stop to illegal music sharing. Media campaigns encouraging music lovers to pay a dollar or two for tracks instead of ‘committing a crime’ by downloading them for free are actually working as slowly but surely, more and more people flock to online music stores. And with existing customers sticking to this more ‘comfortable’ way of buying music, the industry is finally starting to win back ground it lost due to music piracy.
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