Introduction
Social Media has shaped nearly very thing around us; to how we communicate, interact, entertain ourselves and to even make a living. In order to deal with such a vast amount of change, we as a society have had to adapt to how the internet has affected us. The internet has made many things that were much simpler into a complex structure that has not yet been fully discovered. Internet has changed the world in many drastic ways, and in order to keep up, many industries are working to learn of this change so that they can continue to grow for themselves. One such industry is an entertainment that we all enjoy: music. Music is an aspect of our culture that everyone enjoys. It has influenced a great deal around us; the internet and social media are prime examples of its influence. The music industry, a once music simpler market of entertainment, has been forced to change the ways it operates in order to continue. How the music industry has been affected by the dawn of social media and the internet can be summarized in how artists have worked to gain exposure, how the music industry has responded to the change, and how the sales of music has been affected due to the internet and social media.
Background
The music industry and its advertising in the twentieth century can be summarized simply in the following way: artist releases song from album and is played on the radio to promote it, album is released, and artists tours to continue to support album. This method was the tried and true formula in releasing music. With relatively few other platforms other than newspaper and television, radio and word of mouth were the essential ways to get an artist's music exposed. In the turn of the century and with the advancement of technology, the platforms and ways for an artist to get there music out there advanced as well. Early in the century, file sharing sites like Napster made it free, as well as illegal, to download and listen to music for listeners. Beginning in 2003, Itunes made it possible to legally download music, and other platforms soon followed. As the decade leading to now progressed, there was less emphasis on record sales, as artists were able to release their music for free on many platforms and media. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and Youtube have given unknown artists the opportunity to create and release their music at no cost. The shift in distributing music has severely affected not only artists, but the entire music industry as a whole. It has taken power away from the record companies themselves and allowed the artists to create what they want, and release what they want.