Facing the Music (And its Issues)

I was shopping in a Target store last week. Whenever I go to a store like Target, I'm in and out within a matter of minutes. I know what I need and I buy it and leave. Last week, I decided to browse aimlessly for the first time in a long time. Part of the reason was that I was accompanying a friend who had driven the both of us. As he sought out the gummy vitamins on his shopping list, I wandered into the electronics section. I found myself before racks and racks of lonely compact discs, wholly ignored and attracting zero shopper traffic. It was a museum of technological relics.

Seeing it brought back special memories. Using my voracious reading appetite as a guise, I would persuade my mom to drop me off at Barnes & Noble for a few hours so I could devour their CD selections. I didn't have my own disposable income in the fourth grade, so I was content with simply learning and memorizing the artists and albums in the Pop/Rock section. I would study the cover art of albums like Beck's Midnite Vultures and Boz Scaggs' Hits! and wonder to myself what sort of sounds were contained in those jewel cases that I had never heard before. What captured my imagination especially was the music sitting in the forbidden Rap/Urban section. That kind of music was off-limits in my household, so of course I had to indulge my perverse curiosities. Before very long, I knew the name of every rap artist (along with his choice of creative spelling and jewelry) that Barnes & Noble carried. As I transitioned into my slightly more mature middle school years, my dad took me to Best Buy (only on fortunate weekends) so I could browse an even more expansive amount of CD's and, on the most fortunate weekends, choose one for him to buy for me.

Little did I realize that, at the time of the genesis of my music purchasing, the music industry was fast approaching the painful realization of its doom. Nineteen-ninety-nine saw the release of the original Napster, undoubtedly the single worst thing to happen to label executives loathe to travel by any means other than their private jets. Using Napster for the first time that year was like my first taste of ice cream. It was believing I might never feel a need to leave the computer screen, or my bedroom, again. Even as Napster died, successors sprang up to replace it, and more news of plummeting CD sales were published.

Although I was admittedly part of the growing population of listeners and fans who were increasingly forsaking the compact disc, I was not forsaking my love of listening to music, nor was the community of downloaders, I believe. More portable than ever, music was becoming more than a hobby for one's free time. It was becoming an inseparable part of daily life. There is a demand for music that never ceases to increase all the time, but the recording industry is not delivering it on their terms anymore.

Because of my personal love of music and my relationship with its past business models, I want to explore answers and possibilities for where the recording industry can and will go in the age of downloading. Although I love downloading music, I can't rationalize to myself that billions of unpaid downloads are not hurting the health of music in general and the pockets of working musicians. I still buy physical releases of music through vinyl now because of the advantages in analog sound quality over digital, but also because I care about the artists I love and I want their careers to last.

The time now is a pivotal one for music. Art has been forced to adjust to technology in the past (Theaters facing VCR's) and this particular battle is proving to be an especially lengthy and contentious one, without any clear winners yet. The ultimate goal of reconciling the needs of the music industry and the needs of the music listener must no doubt be achieved through the insights of listeners and their experiences. Knowing the many factors that go into the decision processes of these consumers are invaluable to reaching this goal. An article by Andrew C. Humes called "The Day the Music Died: The RIAA Sues its Customers", published in the Indiana Law Review (http://ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=16404958&site=ehost-live), offers more specific details of the recording industry's campaign against downloaders and even some abstract possibilities of solutions that could satisfy the concerns of both the RIAA and its consumers. I'm hoping my research into this topic will also yield satisfactory answers that could lead music toward a more fair and thriving future.