To summarize the above, just think about how you act when you listen to your favorite band on your iPod. Now think about how you would act if you were going to a live show of that same band. It doesn't matter what kind of music you listen to; the different ways in which you listen to exactly the same music affects you in many ways. You probably won't dance or mosh in your room quite as hard as you would at a concert. Now that you are acquainted with how music delivery can affect your attitude, we should now observe the evolution of this delivery up to its disruption of the recording industry.
Once upon a time, there was a land in which the only way that the people could listen to their favorite music was exclusively through the radio, barring any live performances. It was assumed that everyone else was listening to the same song on the radio that you were. Because of this, the radio created an audience that felt connected in taste to each other despite a physical distance. In effect, a social identity was recognized for the audience. You were either a part of the "music lover's club" or you weren't. This social identity began to tear apart with the introduction of the LP and 45 rpm records. These discs would create a different perspective of music.
The LP, the 45 rpm, and other records objectified music into something that we could collect that would represent our musical taste. For the first time, the people were in control of the music in their own home. They were no longer strictly slaves to the whim of the radio. Not only are the people now in control of their own listening pleasures, but they could share their music to whomever they wanted to. Your personal musical library became something that you could take pride in because it was unique and can say a lot about you. These records represent a significant change in how music will forever be perceived.
If we fast-forward to the 1980s, there is a new piece of music delivery technology called the cassette tape. Now we can share music more efficiently thanks to the portability of the cassette. Even more importantly, we could now record anything we want onto it and create "mixtapes." Instead of going to the music store and buying an album, you could now record your favorite songs from the radio for the cost of a blank cassette tape. People could now copy full albums in their own home! It is at this point in time that the disruption of the recording industry has begun. We could now bypass the monopoly that the industry has on music, much to their dismay. In fact, the cassette took blame for the financial situation that the Recording Industry Association of America had during this time, despite the fact that they were overspending on their budget (Harvey, 2009).
When it came to the disruption of the recording industry, the cassette was nothing compared to the MP3.
After the MP3 was released in the 1990s, it allowed the public to deliver music outside of the industry’s control. It was the first time that this had ever occurred since music delivery began over a century ago. This new form of the home manufacturing of music was on a much larger scale than that of the cassette tape. Music became an object of sharing over the Internet. As time went by, music sharing became more and more prevalent. Programs were created to allow users to share their music files with the world and at the same time downloading the music files of others who are doing the same thing. A pirate infrastructure was created on the Internet with leading websites like The Pirate Bay that are blatantly findable on the Internet. The RIAA has retaliated and has shut down peer-to-peer sites like Napster and Limewire due to their claims of financial damage and copyright infringement.
Music delivery has evolved to the point of creating a major disruption in the record industry itself, yet the industry believes that they could combat this trend through what seems to be a never-ending amount of legal battles.