How the internet changed music forever

The music industry has weathered a number of changes throughout the years. Different formats were introduced, others became obsolete, but it was not until the arrival of the internet that music suffered the most dramatic changes. Browse through the gallery and learn more on how the internet changed music forever.

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Napster - Peer-to-peer file sharing was a truly revolutionary (and illegal) thing. Napster allowed users to share mp3 files.

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Napster - We got so excited about the prospect of having free music that we turned into online pirates without really knowing the consequences.

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MSN Messenger / Windows Live Messenger - The status bar was the place to show your contacts your great taste in music. It was like wearing a virtual band t-shirt.

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Peer-to-peer file sharing - Remember LimeWire and other peer-to-peer file sharing software? You'd search for a song and have to go through a number of results, checking the size, download speed, file extension, and all sorts of details to avoid downloading a virus, or worse—porn.

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MySpace - Oh MySpace, the place where you'd list all your favorite bands and show the world how cool you were. You had your "top friends," and if you had a band, this was the place to be. You could upload your own music so other people could listen to it. How cool was that?

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Online forums - You could also have heated (and milder) discussions about whatever genre or artist you wanted. Many a music fan alike spent hours arguing with strangers online. But many forums also resulted in real human interactions—people would meet, friends would be made.

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Blogs - Always wanted to be a music journalist? Can't wait to review an album? The introduction of blogs let you kick-start your career. You could write whatever you wanted, and anyone could read it.

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iPods and mp3 players - In the same way the Walkman replaced the Discman, iPods and mp3 players soon became the new way to listen to music on the move.

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Music streaming - Streaming is probably the biggest revolution in the way people listen to music.

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Bandcamp - Finally, artists could directly sell their music and merch online. They could ask whatever price they felt was fair and give fans the option to pay more if they wanted to.

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Soundcloud - Soundcloud provided yet another easy way for artists to showcase their music and share it with the world.

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Custom playlists -

Sites such as Last.FM started to suggest new artists to listen to based on your preferences. This has since been adopted by various streaming platforms such as Spotify.

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Spotify - People can now (legally) listen to music online without having to buy it and store it. Artists have their music readily available, but they also make a lot less money from it.

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Local scenes were globalized -

Local styles and artists could develop into worldwide phenomenons. Music would spread a lot faster. New ideas and influences would be shared and absorbed by many different musicians.

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Music videos are no longer on TV - Whereas years ago you'd be all over MTV to watch your favorite artists' videos, now everyone just watches them on YouTube and other similar platforms.

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Artists will get almost immediate feedback on their music -

As soon as an artist releases a new album, they will get instant feedback from fans. There’s no need to wait to start touring to find out which songs people like most.

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Lyrics -

Lyrics were originally included in physical copies of albums. Now you can just Google them. Plus, you can look up their meaning, and any other information that the artist might have given about a particular song.

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What’s that song? - Remember the days when you'd have to ask the DJ the name of the song they just played? Well, now thanks to apps such as Shazam, all you need is your phone to identify the song.

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You can (kind of) contact artists on social media - The "@" connects every account out there, verified or not. You can mention or tag an artist and, if you're lucky, you might even get a reply.

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Music and politics - Before the internet, it was harder to know who was supporting who. Now, if an artist plays in a campaign gig, the entire world will know.

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Buying tickets - While you once had to orderly queue (sometimes for hours) to buy tickets for a concert, you can now do it online in just a few minutes.

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Buying tickets - This also opened doors for all sorts of sneaky side businesses, however, with people buying tickets in bulk and then selling them at ridiculous prices.

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Setlists - You can now go to a show and already have an idea of what the setlist will be. Setlist.fm does that for you. The downside? You won't be surprised by an artist anymore.

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DJ - All of a sudden we're all DJs. With music streaming platforms, we can make (or break) a party with our own personal "setlist."

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Memes - Music memes are silly and funny, and without the internet there would be no timely memes popping on our social media feeds.

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Music production - Online tutorials and access to free software allowed bedroom musicians to start recording and producing their own music.

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Artists can collaborate remotely - Want to do some songwriting with a musician across the globe? Thanks to the internet, that's now entirely possible.

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Legend has it... -

Before we were able to capture a whole concert with our phones, any unusual event that happened during a gig would be nothing but a story. Now, you’ll find it on YouTube almost immediately.

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How the internet changed music forever -

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