How technology affects music and musicians

Music and musicians are experiencing commercial and creative changes as the technology is improving with each passing day. Revolutions that are being introduced in various dynamics of music are changing the way music is produced, recorded and performed. Enhanced digital and online technologies are presented that have played an important role in expanding the repertoire of music and is further aiding in development of this field. Not only it is facilitating creation of music but is influencing its distribution in a positive manner. Innovation and discoveries in the form of new instruments and new techniques is changing the entire approach towards music and musicians.

Effects of Technology on Music Industry!

Here we will be presenting how music and musicians are experiencing change in prospective and approaches towards this art.

Technology and Creation of Music:

The entire music industry underwent major changes in ways of doing things and so this digital revolution also changed the methods and techniques of creating music to a huge extent. Earlier the processes were analog but now studios and production houses have made transitions from analog to digital methods of creating music. Changing methods are not only offering enhanced convenience but are cost-effective too. Back in times, creation and recording of music needed thousands of dollars and many enthusiastic participants but now with digital workstations such as Logic, Pro Tools, Ableton, Nuendo and many others have made the recording process significantly easier and cheaper.

Introduction of software have made making music simpler with modern mixing controls, synthesizers, compressors and other similar gears. You can even create and record your music if you only have a computer system. With a click of your mouse, you can get everything stored. Now anyone can create music within the premises of their home with their computer system. Although for specific genres of music such as classical rock and other styles, you may need a combination of analog and digital gears in order to get authentic results. This ease of creating and recording music has enable many of the aspiring, young and new musicians to enter the industry. Thus, it makes the industry more competitive and versatile.

As technology and software are improving, there are now less changes of loss of integrity with music. Moreover, when you work in the analog world; it is nearly impossible to exactly recall your mix and creation. But in the digital world, you can carry your computer system in the form of laptop anywhere in the world and can replay your exact mix without making any mistakes.

Technology Affects Importance of Technical Ability:

One disadvantage of this tech-friendly musical world is that in the past with analog world; there used to be specialized experts for each aspect of production and recording. You needed a singer, writer, mixing engineer, producers, musicians and many other experts were involved in the process. But now everything can be done single handedly. New electronics and MIDI inventions make it easier for musicians to deliver complex pieces of music with ease as they can easily re-adjust anything they have done with mistakes without needing a huge amount of technical skills. Master pieces are now more about ideas than your ability to play your instrument well and technically correct. Although quality may suffer but there is a lot of controversy. When at one end technology is lowering the importance of technical skills, it is at the same time opening up gates for creative entities to enter with their new ideas even if they lack technical skills. So if you want to make your digital creation work, it is important to go out and take suggestions for improvements with your idea from expert engineers and producers.

Technology Introduces Exciting New Sounds:

With enhanced technology, new synths, mixers, sample manipulators and other pro tools are being introduced that even affects your music writing to a huge extent. Now you get to hear more of different noises and sounds that you might have never heard before. Most of the musicians now are seen working with samples and effects that their systems already have and they manipulate those sounds to choose notes that they would like to use. This is done before they even begin to write their music. They begin with a rough idea in their mind and subconsciously direct their sound attributes from keyboard effects and samples.

Earlier musicians used to think of their musical notes that what they want to write and it would needed an incredible thinking and writing skill with music. Now many musicians begin with a raw idea and work on power of electronics to produce something valuable. This aids you to tap in to new sounds with much simplicity that is too difficult in absence of these tech tools.

Technology and Distribution/Sharing of Music:

With enhanced technology and growing speed of data transfer, working and distribution of music has become much easier and a huge range of options are now available. Technologically connected global network now allows musicians to spread their music more quickly to a large range of audiences with platforms like Youtube, Sound Cloud, Spotify and many other streaming websites. Sharing and accessibility to music was never that easier.

Now you can spread your music to a wide range of different people belonging to various countries, cultures and backgrounds. This gives musicians an opportunity to experiment with new expressions and sounds. Whenever you want to hear some music, you can go to these social networking and streaming sites and listen to whatever you like.Not only accessibility and distribution is easier but technology has made advertising also quite common and simpler. You can spread your music all around the world and for that you don’t even need a high advertising budget.

While creation, advertising and distribution is becoming easier, this enhanced technology has also open doors to music piracy that can never be closed again. With tech advantages, on one hand where more and more musicians are encouraged to create music and spread it with ease; at the same time there are increased possibilities of theft and piracy of music. There is a difference in budget of making a home studio computer system based music and in a professional album. A professional record labelled album is not cheap and thus musicians who work on professional albums now have a threat of risking their money. As people today find it easier and cheaper to download a single song with a click rather than buying a complete album that they may not like completely.

Thus record labels are now more concerned about spending their money on musicians/artists who can do well commercially. Now the mindset of listeners is created that music should be offered for free whereas earlier it was expected in return of a lot of money. Artists who spend a lot of money in creation and distribution of their music now get very little to nothing in return when their listeners download their music/songs instead of buying their CDs.

Technology and Career in Music:

As things are made simpler and there is an increasing risk of music piracy, careers of musicians are also significantly affected with emerging technology. This trend has proved to be a threat for all those musicians who have working with music industry and have been performing for years. Many musicians agree that technology has made sharing easier and thus is opening up ways for new musicians to enter the industry easily but at the same time it is making standing out in the competition much difficult. The market is becoming over-saturated and thus it is not one of the biggest challenge to make yourself stand out and to build a strong career for yourself. Earlier fan following, word of mouth, shows and good music performance was all that musicians needed in order to advance in their careers. But now everything has changed.

Musicians now need to have advanced gears and there is less tolerance of mistakes. Moreover you can now no more restrict yourself to a local music shop as a musician but you should have your spectrum continuously updated on the social media networking platforms in order to help your music progress and grow.

Conclusion:

To conclude, creating unique and valuable music is still not an easy task. But the evolution of technology is changing the way ideas are transformed for creation, recording and distribution of music. As the technology continues to grow at its rapid rate, the profession of music and outlook of people towards it is also changing. Musicians are continuously going through the process of adapting to the changes that are being made in industry and are looking for ways to progress and stand out in the field. Although the impact has both negatives and positives but music still certainly remains a huge part of our societies and cultures.