The Music Industry
Ben talks about how hard it is to make it in music and changing trends.
Hana: Alright, so Ben, what do you think about the music industry recently?
Ben: Recently? Actually, you know I don’t really listen to the radio so I’m not really sure about popular music, but one thing I do is I read a lot about music news, so one thing I’ve been noticing is with all of these new programs and websites like iTunes, Spotify, the free music …
Hana: Like YouTube yeah?
Ben: YouTube. Yeah, YouTube as well. Like sometimes musicians, we don’t … No one buys CDs anymore.
Hana: No.
Ben: Right? When was the last time you bought a CD? Do you remember?
Hana: I don’t even remember. Probably like ten years ago.
Ben: Right, so like with the internet and the increase of everyone having high speed internet all around the world, I think the industry is changing a lot, especially for musicians and how they get paid.
Hana: Yeah, true.
Ben: It’s interesting in that kind of way, but I think it’s a little … I think we need to change how we pay musicians because people can’t make money anymore.
Hana: No.
Ben: Used to sell CDs and receive a profit from that, but now people are on YouTube downloading music illegally.
Hana: Yes.
Ben: Do you remember those programs that people … What were they called? Like they were like downloaded … Peer to peer downloading software programs, like I think one of them was called Napster. It was one of the biggest …
Hana: Was it?
Ben: Yeah, yeah. It was huge.
Hana: Okay.
Ben: You would download this … I remember, it was about 15 years ago. You would download the program onto your computer and you’d search for something. Let’s say Madonna, which was actually my first song that I ever downloaded illegally was Madonna because I liked her when I was a kid.
Hana: Okay.
Ben: Before my punk days.
Hana: Alright. Right.
Ben: So yeah, you type in the name of the artist you want to listen to and you’d down … All these songs come up that people have placed on the internet.
Hana: Right.
Ben: And you can download that and you can keep it and listen to it as many times as you want for free.
Hana: Yeah.
Ben: And you didn’t pay … I didn’t pay Madonna anything.
Hana: No.
Ben: Right? In that way, I think the music industry has changed a lot.
Hana: Yeah, I think so.
Ben: Yeah, yeah. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, probably bad.
Hana: You think?
Ben: For artists I think it’s not good.
Hana: For artists. Yeah.
Ben: Especially if they’re not as popular, so if they do not have a very big record deal.
Hana: Yeah.
Ben: How do they … How are they going to get profit? If there’s someone like less popular, someone independent artist, like the lower level not so popular artists, they don’t make money.
Hana: No, but I mean, I think recently, I think it’s a good thing that people sort of can find non-famous singers on YouTube or on internet. I listen to radio and while I drive I listen to radio often and I also listen to music on YouTube. The other day accidentally I found … Maybe it’s not even a singer, it’s just an ordinary person singing somebody’s song by her … I thought he is great and I start listening to his songs and I subscribe his channel and in that way, unknown … Well, famous people can become famous and they can make money and sort of … In that sense, YouTube or those internet websites or apps can give them opportunity for …
Ben: That’s true. I think … I totally agree with you and I think in that way, that’s … I guess YouTube and the internet has helped lesser known artists become exposed.
Hana: Yes.
Ben: Right?
Hana: Exactly.
Ben: So there’s exposure with YouTube, right? So there’s all these view count, right? You can suggest a YouTube video to a friend, you can share it on your Facebook page.
Hana: Yeah.
Ben: Definitely in that way YouTube has totally changed … Have you heard the term go viral before?
Hana: No. What does that mean?
Ben: Go viral means that a video that’s put on video gets a lot of hits, a lot of views very, very, very quickly, so it gets seen by a lot of people. Viral, like a virus, right? It spreads through the internet.
Hana: Okay.
Ben: There are some unknown artists that started out with just a YouTube video and that video went viral, right? It received many views, many people saw it, and now they’re popular musicians that people know about.
Hana: Right? Like Justin Bieber, yeah?
Ben: You know what? I think you’re right. Didn’t his parents put him on YouTube when he was a kid?
Hana: I guess so, yeah.
Ben: I think something …
Hana: That’s how he started, yeah?
Ben: Right. Yeah, in that way you can become …
Hana: A pop star.
Ben: A pop star, right?
Hana: Yeah.
Ben: Just from posting a YouTube video that gets seen.
Hana: Right.
1) What does he do often?
2) What does she not remember?
3) What does Ben want to change?
4) How do they feel about Youtube?
5) What does he explain?