Lesson Plan | Seniorthesis2020

How has the music industry changed since the rise of music streaming?

Lesson Plan

Brennan Renz

Objectives:

Students will understand the state of the music industry prior to the rise of music streaming.
Students will examine the changes that music streaming has brought to the music industry.
Students will develop an understanding of the positives and negatives of digital distribution through streaming.

Lesson:

The Music Industry’s Relationship With New Technology (Hook); Source: (Koster) - 2 min

Q: Did the radio kill the music industry?
At the time of the radio’s introduction, the music industry saw it as disruptive and a technology that take sales away from concerts. However, the radio ended up augmenting ticket sales.

The Early Days of Digital Music Distribution (Introduction); Source: (Zaleski) - 2 min

Services like Napster came into being in the early ’90s. On these services, users would upload files and other users could download them, bypassing any payment.
Napster was sued by the Record Industry Association of America in 1999, resulting in the eventual shut down of the service.
Napster was immensely popular, and the public grew to have a distaste for paying the high prices of physical music distribution methods.

How Streaming is Changing the Music Industry (Lecture); Source: (Morris) - 4 min

Q: What do you think the path to success is today for an artist?

The primary way the music industry will change is either the death or the forced adaptation of the record label.
At this point in time, the record label as an institution is a middleman that no longer needs to exist.
Previously, record labels would provide music production, connections to get songs radio attention, and a steady stream of new artists.
Currently, anyone can produce their own music with often free software, radio attention matters less and less every day, and new artists are more likely to be discovered on social media.
Additionally, the money an artist has to sacrifice to be a part of a label is no longer worth it.
“Once we - and the artists - no longer need the record labels to find us new music, once artists are able to produce their own tracks instead of relying on the old studio model, they are effectively rendered obsolete” (Morris).

Examination of a Free Music Development Service (Activity) - 3 min

Volunteers from the audience will approach the Smart Board and take a guided tour of a free music production service.
The goal is to prove the ease of use of modern software, further reinforcing the concepts discussed in the previous lecture.

How Music Streaming is Effecting Consumers and Artists (Lecture) - 4 min

Artists can operate without labels because of streaming services, speaking directly to the public through the use of social media.
Artists are free of technological limitations that accompanied CDs and vinyl records, allowing for more creative freedom.
Streaming services use robust algorithms to learn about the user and provide far superior music recommendations than traditional methods of listening like the radio ever could (Cole).
Artists are under-compensated in the era of music streaming (“How The Internet Changed Music”).

Closing

Whether you, I, or the music industry like it, the Pandora’s Box of music streaming is open and it will irrevocably change the way people listen to music. Music streaming is altering the way the music industry operates and providing advantages to artists and consumers that would have never been possible before music streaming.

Materials:

An accessible free music production service

Annotated Bibliography

Cole, Sean. “The Impact of Technology and Social Media on the Music Industry.” Econsultancy, Centaur Media PLC, 10 Sep. 2019, www.econsultancy.com/the-impact-of-techno logy-and-social-media-on-the-music-industry/.

This source addresses how the music industry has changed from Limewire until modern-day music streaming, and also addresses the way that music itself has changed to better suit streaming, like much longer albums to secure more plays. The article also discusses the advantages that both the consumer and the artist receive from music streaming.

“How The Internet Changed Music: Recording Connection.” Recording Connection Audio Institute, 10 Jun. 2019, www.recordingconnection.com/reference-library/recording-entre preneurs/how-the-internet-changed-music/.

Set up in this source is a clear listing of the pros and cons of music streaming and the modern music industry. Piracy is also addressed as a disruptive element in artist, streaming company, and label relations.

Koster, A. “The Emerging Music Business Model: Back to the Future?”. Journal of Business Case Studies (JBCS), vol. 4, no. 10, Oct. 2008, pp. 17- 22, doi:10.19030/jbcs.v4i10.4812.

There has always been a fear of new technologies in the music industry, dating back to even the introduction of the radio, as covered in this source. It also addresses the methods that the music industry used in an attempt to curb digital music distribution.

Morris, Ian. “Technology Is Destroying The Music Industry, Which Is Great For The Next Taylor Swift.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 Nov. 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/20 14/11/17/technology-is-destroying-the-music-industry-which-is-great-for-the-next-taylor- swift/#4af1275b236b.

In the modern era of music, as discussed by this source, the position of record labels is tenuous, as the advantages that a label used to offer are easily done on one’s own these days, and then one is not losing the percentage of profits a label would want. Whereas labels used to be a requirement, now artists have more freedom to do exactly what they want because of the technology available to the average person today.

Zaleski, Annie. “335,000 Banned Fans: The History of Metallica's Napster Battle.” Ultimate Classic Rock, Townsquare Media, Inc., 12 Apr. 2015, ultimateclassicrock.com/metallic a-napster-lawsuit/.

This source discusses the history of Napster and its role in changing the music industry through the lens of Metallica’s drummer Lars Ulrich’s famous feud with the site. While the lawsuit did eventually result in Napster shutting down, the service’s popularity did provide the seed in the minds of the public that music is better when it's free, a sentiment that can be seen in the popularity of music streaming services today.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1X9Z3cjQEvfQmRBNy5a-GNRvEeNWqFGaD-NuPtyjz5K4/edit#slide=id.p