The Music Industry

Hana: Alright, so Ben, what do you think about the music industry recently?

Ben: Recently? Actually, you know I don’t really listen to the radio so I’m not really sure about popular music, but one thing I do is I read a lot about music news, so one thing I’ve been noticing is with all of these new programs and websites like iTunes, Spotify, the free music …

Hana: Like YouTube yeah?

Ben: YouTube. Yeah, YouTube as well. Like sometimes musicians, we don’t … No one buys CDs anymore.

Hana: No.

Ben: Right? When was the last time you bought a CD? Do you remember?

Hana: I don’t even remember. Probably like ten years ago.

Ben: Right, so like with the internet and the increase of everyone having high speed internet all around the world, I think the industry is changing a lot, especially for musicians and how they get paid.

Hana: Yeah, true.

Ben: It’s interesting in that kind of way, but I think it’s a little … I think we need to change how we pay musicians because people can’t make money anymore.

Hana: No.

Ben: Used to sell CDs and receive a profit from that, but now people are on YouTube downloading music illegally.

Hana: Yes.

Ben: Do you remember those programs that people … What were they called? Like they were like downloaded … Peer to peer downloading software programs, like I think one of them was called Napster. It was one of the biggest …

Hana: Was it?

Ben: Yeah, yeah. It was huge.

Hana: Okay.

Ben: You would download this … I remember, it was about 15 years ago. You would download the program onto your computer and you’d search for something. Let’s say Madonna, which was actually my first song that I ever downloaded illegally was Madonna because I liked her when I was a kid.

Hana: Okay.

Ben: Before my punk days.

Hana: Alright. Right.

Ben: So yeah, you type in the name of the artist you want to listen to and you’d down … All these songs come up that people have placed on the internet.

Hana: Right.

Ben: And you can download that and you can keep it and listen to it as many times as you want for free.

Hana: Yeah.

Ben: And you didn’t pay … I didn’t pay Madonna anything.

Hana: No.

Ben: Right? In that way, I think the music industry has changed a lot.

Hana: Yeah, I think so.

Ben: Yeah, yeah. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, probably bad.

Hana: You think?

Ben: For artists I think it’s not good.

Hana: For artists. Yeah.

Ben: Especially if they’re not as popular, so if they do not have a very big record deal.

Hana: Yeah.

Ben: How do they … How are they going to get profit? If there’s someone like less popular, someone independent artist, like the lower level not so popular artists, they don’t make money.

Hana: No, but I mean, I think recently, I think it’s a good thing that people sort of can find non-famous singers on YouTube or on internet. I listen to radio and while I drive I listen to radio often and I also listen to music on YouTube. The other day accidentally I found … Maybe it’s not even a singer, it’s just an ordinary person singing somebody’s song by her … I thought he is great and I start listening to his songs and I subscribe his channel and in that way, unknown … Well, famous people can become famous and they can make money and sort of … In that sense, YouTube or those internet websites or apps can give them opportunity for …

Ben: That’s true. I think … I totally agree with you and I think in that way, that’s … I guess YouTube and the internet has helped lesser known artists become exposed.

Hana: Yes.

Ben: Right?

Hana: Exactly.

Ben: So there’s exposure with YouTube, right? So there’s all these view count, right? You can suggest a YouTube video to a friend, you can share it on your Facebook page.

Hana: Yeah.

Ben: Definitely in that way YouTube has totally changed … Have you heard the term go viral before?

Hana: No. What does that mean?

Ben: Go viral means that a video that’s put on video gets a lot of hits, a lot of views very, very, very quickly, so it gets seen by a lot of people. Viral, like a virus, right? It spreads through the internet.

Hana: Okay.

Ben: There are some unknown artists that started out with just a YouTube video and that video went viral, right? It received many views, many people saw it, and now they’re popular musicians that people know about.

Hana: Right? Like Justin Bieber, yeah?

Ben: You know what? I think you’re right. Didn’t his parents put him on YouTube when he was a kid?

Hana: I guess so, yeah.

Ben: I think something …

Hana: That’s how he started, yeah?

Ben: Right. Yeah, in that way you can become …

Hana: A pop star.

Ben: A pop star, right?

Hana: Yeah.

Ben: Just from posting a YouTube video that gets seen.

Hana: Right.