5 minute read
The music and dance have been the part of human communication since the dawn of history. There is no scientific explanation of how exactly music became an inalienable component of the life. However, there is no doubt: humanity creates the music and music created humanity. This article discovers the history, current development, and future of music delivery, where music gets under the skin transforming the experience into exciting DIY adventure.
Through the lens
of history
Why downloading the music
when the internet is everywhere
The nearest future is predefined with evolving streaming services and tight competition on the market. The success of the music streaming is an undoubtful and long-awaited breakthrough in the entertaining industry. What is the secret of streaming? The seamless connection through the multiple devices, constant access to the endless digital collection, and personalized algorithms to recommend clients the most suitable tracks. The sharing economy and digitalization are so deeply implemented in daily life that the streaming services, music, movies or any other, will continue being in demand.
The streaming revenues only in the US grew 30 percent in 2015. Spotify increased its subscription value by 66 percent from 2014 worldwide. At the same time, the market of streaming music is tight with Spotify as a confident leader with 30 million subscribers. Second, with 11 million subscribers, is Apple Music. The other players, including Jay-Z’s re-launched Tidal, have approximately the tenth of leaders share – 3 million clients.
Notwithstanding the popularity of streaming services, artists are losing profits in the digital sphere. Re-launched Tidal opposes the current development and offers the highest payoffs to artists comparing to competitors’ rates. Jay-Z, the current owner of the company, states that Tidal is here to “restore the value to music by launching a service owned by artists.” The list of co-owners of the service is growing all the time. For today, the biggest names in the list are Jay-Z himself, Beyoncé, Prince, Rihanna, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, Madonna and other kings and queens of pop culture. The idea of the empowerment of the artists, giving them more control and revenue from the music they produce, is supposed to attract more producer centers for exclusive product provision. Tidal is a reasonable solution for the digital market. Especially after the question of the payment to the artists have been raised publically, particularly by Tailor Swift in the open letter to Apple music. The expected result is the higher quality of music driven by the financial motivation of the artists. Therefore, in the nearest future, where the profits and industry will grow, the world will see larger variety and more innovations in the sphere.
Virtual
music reality
How will industry adopt new technologies like virtual reality? Combination the technology with digitalization and cloud services was offered by Facundo Diaz, the CEO of Virtify. Virtify is a virtual reality music platform, which has already gained the status of revolutionary in audio tech. The platform will create new experiences in music allowing users to attend live concerts virtually. Will it give the feeling of physically being there? Probably not. However, with the development of virtual reality technology and its popularity, Virtify is expected to raise up to $25 million this year. The launch will most likely be partnered with Spotify, so subscribers will be able to choose between ordinary and immersive experience. Altogether, the marketing will evolve along with virtual reality platform, and music-video experience will become augmented.
Universal Music Group and iHeartMedia announced a new partnership to develop immersive music experiences. The service will include the live concerts broadcasts including backstage and other footage. Users will be able to get closer to the artists than it has been available ever before. John Sykes, president of entertainment enterprises for iHeartMedia, comments: “We want not only make the experience better for the fans in the venue but to create moments that could not exist for fan watching and listening outside the venue.”
Getting beats
under the skin
Future scientific development is all about enhancing the human experiences. With the healthcare advancements and better knowledge of the human body will trigger new ways to deliver the music. The music in the future will respond to the bodies, moods. For instance, using the wearable technologies, devices will recognize the state of mind and play the track complementing the moment. It is the new level of personalization. Music will change depending on how hard the person is exercising or changes according to how human feels. Moreover, the combination of Internet of Things with music delivery creates biometric media which can read the collective moods and be customized to a[nbsp]crowd of people using the data on the[nbsp]collective heartbeat.
Another path of development is the empowerment of the human in music creation. Everyone can create the tune by body movement. Nowadays, the innovative ways of music recording and construction are presented only in the world of art. However, the roots of innovation usually come from the creative street artists to mass market. One of the examples is Pietr-Jan Pietr’s Sound on Intuition project, which transforms body movement into the music.
