2. The role of the internet in the music industry

For almost the past three decades, music has become more assimilated with the internet, hence the reason why the artists of today.  The growth of streaming platforms has helped the music business recover from a 15-year decline, as it has countered inclination to pirate music; this has been beneficial for pop artists and the music industry as a collective.  I decided to research the extent of which the internet is involved in the music industry, as my artist will need to utilise the internet and have a digital presence in order to appeal to the mainstream 16-25 year old demographic.

Notable Companies & Services in the Music Industry


Spotify:

• Spotify is a digital music streaming service which provides its users with access to millions of songs for free
• Spotify was founded by Swedish founder Daniel Ek in April 2006 (who is now CEO of the company)
• Spotify, despite being reported to be a loss-making company was reported to be worth $20bn in 2018 on the New York Stock Exchange
• The company was reported to have made an annual revenue of $5 billion
• Reported to have 159 million active users; 71 million are subscribed monthly, allowing them to listen to music offline and ad-free.  There are 88 million 'freenium' users.
• Artists earn revenue through this per stream; the music label that the artist is a part of gains a cut of this.

Spotify is used widely by pop artists, as this is how the majority of their audience listens to their music.  Therefore it is necessary that artists do this in order to reach broader audiences and grow a following.

Youtube & Youtube Music:

• Youtube & Youtube Music, ran by CEO Susan Wojicki, is a portal for streaming songs, albums, music videos, covers, remixes, etc.
• The subscription is at $9.99 a month; this gives the user the ability to listen to music and watch music videos offline
• The service allows artists to centralise all their music under their name, preventing the other 'creators' on the platform from potentially monetizing  content with their copyrighted material.

Youtube Music allows artists to bring together their music videos, songs, albums, etc. all in one place.  This is key for providing audiences with the visual aspect of their content, which Youtube provides.

Artists Use of the Internet in the Music Industry:

Pop artists use these services and integrate them within their web spaces, converging them all together with the ultimate intention of leading their audience back to their website, in order to sell their products (such as tour tickets and merchandise).

Demi Lovato's menu bar has links to social media pages and streaming services.

Links to social media pages as well as the various pages on her page is conventional for pop artists (such as news, bio, tour, etc.).  There are also many other conventional features of artist / band websites, for example:

• a link / embedded link to watch the music video(s)
• a short biography of the artist / band
• a page or section to purchase tickets, merchandise, apparel, etc.
• images of the artist / band for obtaining a sense of identity for the artist
• a large header image, featuring the artist and potentially the music they're promoting.

I summarised these conventions by making a moodboard, looking at how artists incorporated these across their websites:

A moodboard on the conventional uses of the internet by pop artists.

I decided to look closely at some websites individually, to gain a greater understanding of how these are put into practice by some large figures in the pop genre today:

DNCE:

Second DNCE header image.

The DNCE band website has a clean design,  featuring the band on the header image and links to their various other pages and the streaming platforms that they are present on.  In this case, this features their latest EP, 'People to People'.  The two header images give us an insight into the band identity, giving us an idea that each member provides a unique sense of style to the band, connoted through the different clothing and styles as oppose to a uniform look.    The use of a bio, titled 'Meet DNCE' reiterates the 'star identity' of the band, talking about their successes on the charts and the awards.
Visually, there is a clean sense of style to the website, using primarily a white, black and red colour scheme.  There is also a consistant sense of branding, with the
The site also uses the conventional email newsletter, creating a way for fans to stay
updated use of the black 'DNCE' logo. with the band's activities.  This is in order to establish a connection with the fandom and the band, forming the notion that the two are connected, or that the fandom is on the journey with DNCE.

Email Newsletter

The band also has a few other pages, such as a tour page, a videos page and even a photos page.  The photos page is slightly less typical; in the case of the DNCE page, it is another way of integrating the idea of fandom within the website.   The photos page not only shows pictures of the band, primarily from their social media page, but also gives the user the ability to rebrand their social media pages with DNCE images, offering them the chance to further their connection with the brand and be more integrated with them.  The images also show how the fans express their expression for the band, again, integrating the element of fandom with the band, showing they care for those who support them.



Taylor Swift:

Taylor Swift's website is very simple, due to the fact that the majority of the content is based on one page, which is conventional of modern pop artist websites.  From the very instant one is sent to the website through the URL, there is an immediate promotion of her latest album, 'Lover' which is available to download and/or stream.  On top of this, we get a large sense of star identity from the MCU of her outside of the album cover.  This is reinforced by the logo that remains on the top of the page for the entire time.  As one navigates further down the page, there is evidence of digital convergence, with the use of the embedded Youtube player on the fourth panel down.  This can send the user to her Youtube channel, where you can find the rest of her videos; in reverse, her website is linked in the description of the video, so the viewers can learn more about her, the album, merchandise, etc.

The linked pages on her website works as a means of expanding on the content that are presented initially on the home page.  The primary example of this is the merchandise page, which contains more details on the pricing of each item, colours, shipping details, etc.


Justin Timberlake:

Justin Timberlake's website despite conforming to the majority of the conventions of pop artist websites, his is rather unique in a few ways.  The main difference is that a portion of his content, such as videos and images is behind a paywall.  For $24.99 annually, members of the 'Tennessee Kids' receive deeper access to photos, videos, etc. and are also given some exclusive benefits, such as a free limited edition t-shirt once they sign up.  Furthermore, a lot of Justin's content that isn't music is promoted on the website, like his book 'Hindsight & All the Things I Can't See in Front of Me' and his collaboration with Levi Jeans.  Overall, his site feels more personal, giving us a greater sense of who he is as a person as well as a musician.

Since researching the role of the internet in the music industry, I now have a greater understanding of who the key players are within the internet space and also how artists utilise the space to their advantage.  Moving forward, I need to be able to use the conventions I have picked up on and also make a site that provides the user with a strong sense of identity for my artist simultaneously.  Various conventional features like a newsletter and a merchandise section are fundamental to artist websites; these are the features that I must consider implementing when crwating my own website.