Annotated Bibliography

Neblett, Tour. The Way The Music Died. Frontline. PBS Online, 6 May. 2004. Web. 11 March. 2013. Tour is a novelist and contributing editor for Rolling Stone. His interview with Frontline was focused on the affect that music piracy and MTV have had on the music industry. He goes on to say that the industry is struggling, but the appreciation for music is the same in the younger generation. He states that music downloading is not necessarily the problem with the industrys struggle with sales and success. Though many teenagers download illegally, many of these kids say they would go buy the music after listening to it. That, or they downloaded music that they would never have purchased in the first place. There is a generational difference in the way people consume music. The younger generation is more inclined to get the music online for free or to buy, whilst the older generation is more inclined to go to the store and buy the CD. Though piracy is a problem, there is a sense of unsatisfaction with the current state of CDs. Most albums have only a few good songs on them, which creates bitterness between the consumer and the record company. The result is distrust in CDs and an unwillingness to spend money on them. Record company executives do struggle with this fact. In addition to music piracy, MTV has created a sort of video artist. Artists who are visually attractive have a higher chance of thriving in this environment than the older artists who rely only on their music make a success. In addition, other genres like rap have grown due to MTV. Though rap artists have been making more money, the quality

in the music has declined. Tour states that the industry is built for safety, not for taking chances. He goes on to say that consumers have less money to spend on music due to the economy, and artists are producing less quality music. This has created a downturn in the industry and its reputation. There needs to be a greater relationship between the record companies and online music consumers. This author is very passionate about the music industry, and he can see the conflict that the Internet and television have created. He portrays himself as a person who is frustrated with the music industrys laziness. He doesnt seem to think that the music industry is declining because of downloading. In addition, he also disagrees with the data that the RIAA put out about the amount of revenue lost due to music piracy. The information here is reliable because Tour is very involved with this line of work. This interview is more intended for the general audience. He speaks in a more simple tone, and sometimes using metaphors to explain a situation. This source is different from the other sources because it is an interview, a direct recording of a persons opinion. I found that the information discussed in this article was a little too scattered. I had hoped that Tour could have gone into greater detail about how the introduction of music downloading has affected the music industry. I will however be able to use his opinion to combat the idea that the record companies are the only victims here, but the fans are the victims as well.

Pikas, Bohdan, Anastasia Pikas, and Candice Lymburner. The Future of the Music Industry. Journal of Marketing Development & Competitiveness 5.3 (2011): 139-149. Print.

Anastasia and Bohdan Pikas are professors of marketing at Niagara University, and Lymburner is an undergrad at Niagara University. Their academic article talks about how the music industry has evolved from CDs to MP3s and the effects it has had on record companies and bands. Before the compact disk came along in the late 70s, the music industry was on a decline. With the introduction of the CD, music sales continued to rise until 2000. Even with the introduction of music downloading, CDs have been the major source of income for record companies to sell their music. Once music was available in MP3 format (MPEG Audio Layer III), people were able to share music files with one another. This created the problem of illegally obtaining music via the Internet. Because Napster was allowing its users to share music without permission or payment, the RIAA, along with other companies, filed a lawsuit against Napster. By 2001, Napster had to close down its website until they changed the format to a subscription-based service. By the end of this court case, the RIAA had estimate that over 20 million people were using Napster, causing a loss of $300 million in music sales. After the incident with Napster, Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) was implemented. This software restricted the ability to share downloaded music. Apple was among the many companies forced to use this software on their products. Even with DRM software impeding the ability to share music, Apple had sold 2 billion songs by 2006. Though more music was being regulated by DRM software, music pirating was still circulating via unprotected CDs. Because of the hassle and ineffectiveness of DRM, Apple released the software when they renovated the iTunes Store.

Since the sales of music in the format of CDs have dropped so drastically, record companies have found new ways to make profit. By using music as a way to introduce bands to an audience, record companies have been able to increase concert sales and band merchandise. Myspace has also provided a means to introduce artists to people, and then sell the bands music through the website. Pikas, Pikas, and Lymburner observe that as music is traveling down a path to where it will be free, artists and record companies will need to find alternative means to generate income. With this being an academic research paper, the authors analyzed the data they collected and interpreted it thoroughly. These authors include many important dates in the changing music industry between 1979- 2011. In addition, the article includes many different financial developments and statistics that show the decline and growth of music sales. This source is far more developed than anything I have researched for this topic. This source is useful for its data and interpretation of this data. I found this article to be very non-biased and informative. Though no clear argument is made in this paper, it shows that there is definitely an issue concerning the internets affect on the music industry. The authors do predict that music will be used as way to sell other services and merchandise that the bands offer. This proves that bands will have an outlet to make revenue, which is in agreement with the Whitherbee and English article. I plan to use this paper as strong defense against any author who say that the music industry is completely dead because of the internet.

Recording industry Association of America. Recording industry Association of America. RIAA, 2013. Web. 11 Mar, 2009.

The RIAA is a trade organization set up to protect musicians and their intellectual property. By working with record companies, The RIAA helps distribute 85% of all music here in the United States. Bands partner with the RIAA to make their music known, whilst paying them a royalty to help them. Much of the research concerning music shipping and sales is conducted and collected by the RIAA. In addition to that, they also compile data concerning music piracy and how it affects the industry. I find this website to be resourceful concerning sales numbers and research articles. Because the RIAA is involved in so much of the business side of the music industry, this website provides me with a clear understanding of the organizations mission. Though there is relevant information here, the RIAA is biased in their views on music downloading. They believe that without musicians selling CDs, they wont make money. This viewpoint is opposing other articles that I have read. I think that this source is relevant because of their foothold on this subject. I plan to contrast the RIAA opinion against other articles that Ive read.

Witherbee, Amy, and Marlanda English. Music Piracy Costs Billions. Points of View: Music Downloading (2008): 2-2.EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. Amy Witherbee has a Ph.D. from Boston College,and is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas. She is interested in topics concerning visual culture and politicaleconomic issues to name a few. Dr. English is an executive coach and specializes organizational development. Witherbee and Englishs article comments on how music pirating is costing the record companies billions of dollars in the lack of CD sales. With the introduction of Napsters file sharing in 1999, CD sales have been on the decline.

With Napsters new format of buying online music, they are turning what was once a problem into a resource: online music. Other companies like Apple have adopted this same format. In 2003, Record companies were suing music pirates. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) lost an approximate 4.2 billion dollars a year due to music pirating. Though these numbers are huge, companies are not using the Internet as an asset. Before file sharing became huge, audiences were complaining about the quality and variety of music being played by radio stations. People were unsatisfied with the typical boy bands that the record companies were spending time and money investing in. In addition, CD prices were not reasonable for the music being purchased, since most people bought a CD for one good single. With more dissatisfaction from customers, audiences were keener to the idea of buying music online. With the option to purchase a one song of an album for only $0.99, more people were leaning towards the Internet as the source of music instead of going out and buying CDs. While CD sales are plummeting, online sales are going up. According to this article, the authors are not for music piracy. Witherbee and English see technology and the internet itself as an excellent outlet for bands to thrive, if done correctly. There is a strong argument for online music sales. In addition, this article shows distrust for the RIAA and record companies involved. The information shown seems to be intended more for the general public than for experts in this field. I found this articles content to be lacking in substance, its too short. Perhaps this is because neither of these two authors are specialized in this field of interest. However, the argument made here will be an excellent inclusion to my Inquiry Project.