ICON66 – Volume 2
MP3 – Music on the Net
MP3, and the other compression technologies that have emerged, are one of the few truly revolutionary developments of the Web.
Before the advent of the phonograph, the only physical objects connected with music were the instruments and the sheet music used to make it. Music was always a live experience, and most professional musicians could make a living from it. Then the music industry was born. Music was frozen into chunks, commoditised and sold in shops. MP3, and the other compression technologies that have emerged, are one of the few truly revolutionary developments of the Web - taking music away from the marketing of boxes and back towards a more direct link between artist and audience. A digital recording of a piece of music can be sufficiently compressed into an MP3 file to make it a practical proposition to download it from a website and play the near-CD quality music using a shareware player on your computer.
The first manifestation of the revolution was the eponymous site MP3.com. The site achieves huge traffic by offering anyone with a recording the chance to upload their music so that the rest of the world can download it and play it on their PC. Because of the millions of, mostly young, people flocking to the site, MP3.com now enjoys a valuation of billions of dollars.
There are now many sites offering a similar service up and running on the web - packed with exciting new music across all musical styles - and much of it is even available for free! There are dedicated hip-hop sites, sites focussed on new independant music, even sites that endeavour to offer something for everyone. Not all of these businesses can survive and the competition demands ever more ambitious marketing campaigns, or effective site design structures, to keep ahead of the pack and keep dedicated audiences coming back.
Now the major labels have been forced to sit up and take notice. The Warners/AOL/EMI mega merger confirms that the future of the music industry is on the web. The next generation of web music business, one with multiple revenue streams (and thus a sustainable business model) that does everything a record label should do by using the economies and market aggregation powers of the web, will soon be with us.
One such business Floot.com has just announced a joint venture with Freeserve, the UK's leading internet service provider, who will take an equity holding in Floot.com. The site launching this Spring will provide back catalogue music of every genre for download, or customised CDs, whilst also signing and developing new talent. "The internet is the future of all media businesses", commented William Pryor, Floot.com's MD and founder. "Combining Freeserve's 1.675 million active registered users with Floot.com's business model is going to make us a winner and will deliver considerable commercial benefits to both music buyer and musicians." Freeserve's Simon Cook added "Through our marketing and distribution deal, combined with an equity holding, we are able to kick start what promises to be a most interesting business. The internet will transform the music industry, and Floot will be at the forefront of these developments."
EXPERIENCE ONLINE MUSIC
A STEP BY STEP GUIDE
THE MUSIC
INDUSTRY WILL
NEVER BE THE
SAME...
GET A FREE
MP3 PLAYER
1. Open web
browser, enter
address: http://www.real.com/jukebox.
2. Look for "Real
Jukebox Basic".
Click on "Free
Download".
3. Follow the
instructions
to download
the player.
4. When the
player has
downloaded,
double-click
on it to install
it.
5. Follow the
installation
instructions.
PLAY MUSIC
ON-LINE
1. Open your
web browser
and enter the
address: http://www.mp3.com
2. Choose a
genre you like
from the "Free
Music & Charts".
3. Choose a
title, and
click "Lo
Fi: Play" to
the right of
it.
DOWNLOAD
MUSIC
1. Open your
web browser
and enter the
address: http://www.mp3.com
2. Choose a
genre you like.
3. Click on
a title. -
You will be
taken to a
page of the
artist's work.
4. Choose a
track, and
click download
- save it somewhere
convenient.
5. To play
the track,
double click
on it.
URL: www.floot.com
URL: www.mp3.com
