In My Opinion: Music Industry Platforms

Several countries of the world are feeling the pinch in their industries of music. Many companies started to experience a decline in music sales since digital music downloading systems became popular. There are many ways to analyse this situation; it can be a disadvantage or an advantage, with the advantage being that digital downloading systems allow access to music efficiently resulting in several opportunities of generating revenue where most of the beneficiaries of that revenue become none music industry companies such as the mobile phone companies and others who use the market to promote their products or services and yet fall into unrelated sectors. The question is: are there any beneficial advantages for those who are behind the production of the music? Of course some of the artists benefit from this system. But not ALL artists benefit. Third world countries like South Africa are where music is one of the most fragile careers you can find yourself in. Hardly 10% of the artists in South Africa are able to live off their musical abilities. Some of them end up employed as unskilled labours in contrasting industries just to get by, pretending all the while about being in the lime light. It’s not so much a joke as it is a serious challenge that immediately needs to be attended to. While the South African Music Industry is experiencing a decline and economic recession, several companies benefit from the fruits of music production while not even participating at all in the industry. They capitalize on the loopholes they find in the music industry. Cellular networks experience the most music economic boom in South Africa. Does the solution lie in pointing fingers or in patching the cracks? It’s the individual’s opinion.

The challenges of the commercial music industry didn’t start yesterday, but began with the system of the commercialising of music. The background of recording platforms can be traced back to the Godfather of Cylinder Phonography (system of recording), Sir. Thomas Edison. His invention of a system taken from an idea of a needle being attached to a telephone receiver resulted in the birth of the first recording. From the past to the present we are the witnesses of various music recording platforms like the LP (Vinyl), Cassettes, Digital Compact Discs (CD) and most recently digital downloading. If you take a look at the introduction of cassette tapes, it was not for the music platform, but the audio recording media platform. The reel-to-reel recorders were an expensive option already existing that not everyone was privileged to afford. A similar situation is currently taking place in South Africa where it is no longer about the music, but about applying new technological systems of buying music on the net. Although we can’t run away from the fact that economic challenges exist within the South African population, there are those who can afford to buy music online, but don’t have the knowhow. This is when local mobile networks take an advantage of exchanging their data into money. The downloading system is the easiest for the majority of South Africans and even convinces the song owner about the perks of free promotions. However in this interchange the one who wins the biggest is not the owner of the song but the corporate mobile giant. This can be a fundamental source of the foundation of challenges that the South African Music Industry and others similar to it face today. That the decline of music sales or difficulties to commercialise the music don’t lie only in piracy, unproductive downloads or illegal downloads, but also lie on major companies outside this industry, who only seem to care about their profit and gain.