HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS REVOLUTIONIZING MUSIC?

How Social Media is Revolutionizing Music?

Chapter one: Introduction

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of social media in revolutionizing music industry and musicians through analysis of official and unofficial web sites and media reports, and discussions with musicians. At first sight it would look that social media has gave rise to greater chances to communicate, to share views which previously could not be widely issued, and to influence (Baym, 2007), or organize against the commercial power of the major record labels. However, economic power, surveillance, censorship and control continue to impact on independent, or DIY, musicians to restrict and ultimately prevent the ideal speech situation that is necessary to empower musicians and promote greater independence and control over art and career (Keen 2001, pp. 15). The correlation of social media and music is ever evolving. With all the resources available online, musicians are able to reach a wider audience and gain recognition faster than the pre-internet days.

Chapter two: Literature review

Several researchers have investigated the replacement of real communities with practical communities (Alyn 2007, pp. 4). The increase in high-speed and high-bandwidth internet access around the world and the state of being everywhere at once of computers and internet in the civilized world is another factor which supports the growth of online social network participation, “with more people living more of their lives online, new kinds of relationships [...] have appeared” (Small 2007, pp.12). This may be partly due to globalization, “individuals have become increasingly came away from traditional structural, institutional and common sources of corporate identity” (Harwood 2006, pp. 521). Clearly, the increase in music in today's society are closely interconnected to the rise of social media and Rheingold claims that “perhaps, cyberspace is one of the informal public places where people can share music regardless of their identity, language, origin, etc” (Harwood 2006, pp. 521). Harwood (2006, pp. 521) further develops this theory of 'third places', places between home and work, where people mainly gather to enjoy each other's company and which constitute a context for sociability, spontaneity, community building and emotional expressiveness. Apart from it being a sociological phenomenon, it is clear that social network websites would appear to be a fertile background for marketers who can target groups of likewise minded customers and this has resulted in some recent attention from marketing academics. (Colles 2001, pp. 65-78), for example, propose a model that helps to identify those social media members who are likely to be influential and therefore important to the business, particularly for new customer skill.

The aim of this paper is to explore the influence of social media in bringing the extreme change in music. This paper attempts thus to explain role of social media in the society, influence of social media on the music industry, and change brought by social media to music.

Chapter three: Methodology

Quantitative, qualitative, and formal methodological tools are separated by how they limit the scope of their research, how they measure the relevant variables or ...