The Internet has significantly impacted the music industry in several ways: 1) People can now purchase individual songs online rather than whole albums, affecting CD sales. 2) Music piracy is common online, reducing profits for artists and record labels. 3) Artists can more easily self-promote and release their own music using online advertising and promotion. 4) Smaller artists can gain exposure online that they wouldn't normally receive without a record label.

1. Among other things, the sale of
music over the Internet has
affected the sales of CDs. No
longer does someone have to
purchase a whole album for
just one song when you can
buy the one song at an online
music retailer.

2. Music piracy online is quite
common, which affects artists' and
record labels' profits and anyone that
has an Internet connection can
probably find illegal music
downloads. Naturally the labels lose
more than the artist since they keep
the bulk of the money and the artist
only sees a small percentage.

3. Also, it's easier for artists to
self-promote and self-release
nowadays with all the
possibilities for advertising
and promotion online.

4. Artists can also collaborate online
with each other to produce music
and nowadays you don't even see
your mastering engineer. You just
upload your raw files to their FTP
site and they give you back a
mastered album. Not as intimate
and close, but it's the way things
are going now.

5. Finally, the Internet
enables smaller acts to
receive exposure they
wouldn't normally receive
if not signed to a label.

6. In an ironic sense, musical performance has
gone full circle. In the 19th century and
earlier, the only way a musician could earn a
living was to perform. With the advent of
recording media and more importantly the
economical mass production of them, musicians
could make money selling units. In fact, the big
money was in selling records, not performing
live. Artists and bands went on tour to publicize
their records and albums; touring was the cost
of doing business.

7. Since anyone with a computer can replicate recorded
music with little or no loss of fidelity, it's hard for artists
to sell units anymore. Hence, the big money is in live
performance. The smartest new artists, the ones with the
greatest business sense, don't concern themselves with
illegal file sharing, because they understand the more
exposure they get, the more likely their music will go
viral and the more tickets they will sell to live events.
So, in other words, the recorded music promotes the live
concerts, not the other way around, the way it used to
be. Musicians must once again perform live to get a
payday.