Music has been present since as far back as humans. Every culture has its own sound - even in the most isolated places. Over the years, how people listen to music has also changed drastically, from only being able to go to live performances - to the rise of radio, vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and finally streaming.

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The way these mediums have evolved has also shaped the way we listen to music, the limitations of cassettes gave rise to double albums. CDs increased the storage capacities of the medium and now digital streaming has opened up endless opportunities on the go, with millions of options for consumers. Getting someone’s attention has gotten exceptionally hard. But also given the rise to independent acts that have gained mainstream success,  the need for record labels has reduced significantly and huge marketing budgets to get through to an audience.  

Future trends indicate that the dominance of streaming will only increase, and adapting to this medium is a necessity for upcoming artists. 

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Early Beginnings:

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In the late 19th Century, the gramophone was invented by Emilie Berliner which a way of listening to prerecorded music in ones own home. This became the dominant method to listen to music throughout most of the 20th century. 

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Also known as record players, their use declined after mediums like cassettes and CDs came around, but vinyls are still preferred among audiophiles. Recently the vinyl has seen a resurgence as the form factor of CDs was too small, vinyl became an alternative that became collector's items more than a means of listening to music. The largest form factor allowed for album art to shine too and older vinyls have now become increasingly expensive, further cementing them as collector's items in the modern world. 

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The Cassette Tape:

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In the latter half of the 20th century, Philips introduced the cassette tapes. Initially the sound quality was lower than that of vinyl but the ability to re-record cassettes made them popular among music artists and the form factor led to an ease of use that made the widespread domination of cassettes possible in the 70s and 80s. The use of the cassette tape declined after the invention of CD players but they still played a massive role in the 21st century. Rappers would use them to drop mixtapes, making these mixtapes the precursor to SoundCloud.

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The 90s:

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During the 90s, the introduction of Compact Discs took the next two decades by storm and the rise of the internet was right around the corner. 

Compact Discs became widespread solely because of the high quality they provided, and they could hold much more data than cassette tapes. The compact disk is the evolution of laserdiscs - where a laser beam burns information onto the disc. Introduced in 1982, CD sales grew exponentially and within 10 years were the highest selling medium for music. This success can be owed to the partnership between Sony and Philips who pushed out hardware that allowed for the adoption of CDs allowing the medium to dominate the market. 

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Cassette players were phased out of cars completely in favor of CD players. CD sales declined once the online sharing of files became a possibility and the free nature of the exchange made that way more desirable. Automobiles also started phasing out CD players in favor of Bluetooth and aux cord setups as the capabilities of mobile phones increased through the 2000s too. 

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The Internet:

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The internet allowed for a seamless experience, you could download music without leaving your house, and piracy became a possibility. Legal sales of music plummeted throughout the 2000s and were at all-time lows at the start of 2010. Artists who would consistently sell a million copies in their first weeks were doing less than 1/4th of those numbers. A new medium was needed which catered to the consumer's needs and allowed for profitability. 

 

Computer networking, combined with powerful home computers and modern operating systems, made streaming media practical and affordable. The success of music on Youtube showed that streaming is the future, and ad-free streaming services soon caught on. Adopting a subscription model where users pay a monthly fee to access an unlimited library seemed too good to be true, and in some cases, it is in terms of revenue for artists, the payout is less than that of a traditional album or song sales but the widespread use of streaming makes it impossible to counter this. And for streaming services to stay profitable along with the artists, this is a compromise most artists are willing to make. 

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Music streaming platforms have grown rapidly in popularity in recent years.

Spotify has over 207 million users, as of January 1, 2019, in 78 different countries. Apple Music has about 60 million, and SoundCloud has 175 million. 2017 alone saw a 41.1% increase in streaming revenue alone and an 8.1% increase in overall revenue. Streaming revenue is now one of the largest driving forces behind the growth in the music industry.

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The future seems to indicate the rapid growth of the streaming industry will continue. This shift to streaming has also allowed for an increase in independent artists as anyone can upload their music online without going through a Russian roulette round with a record label. Also, the vast amount of music that we have allows for individuals to have music collections that cater specifically to their tastes, instead of being limited by what a record label chooses to spend money on. The future is digital and it is bright. 

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Sources:

 Understanding Media and Communication: An Introduction to Mass Communication Chapter 6

      NME.COM. "Millennials push 2015 record sales to 26-year high in US". NME.COM. Archived from the original on          2015-12-26.

 "RIAA Mid-Year 2017 Music Industry Revenue Report". RIAA. 20 September 2017.

      Rothman, Lily. "Rewound: On its 50th birthday, the cassette tape is still rolling". Time Magazine. Retrieved 6                    August 2013.

"UK cassette sales grew by 90% in first half of 2018". 26 July 2018. The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 2018-10-26

"The History of the CD". Philips Research. Retrieved 7 June 2014.

 Introducing the amazing Compact Disc (1982). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 10 June 2015. Archived from the        original on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2016 – via YouTube.

 Why CDs may actually sound better than vinyl Archived 9 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Chris Kornelis, 27       

     January 2015

Smith, Ethan (2 January 2009). "Music Sales Decline for Seventh Time in Eight Years: Digital Downloads Can't Offset     

     20% Plunge in CD Sales". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 4

     March 2009.

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