User:Jcremo24/sandbox

Black Music Online -

Black music has taken a major turn going from many different performance styles in the U.S. for popular music to a new and improved interactive, online and digital environment where many people advertise and show off their talents across the social media web. Through many different apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc, many people have seen their music careers take off from posts to the digital media environment such as Michael Dapaah (Big Shaq), Danielle Bregoli (Cash me outside) and DC Young Fly. As early as the 2000's it was thought that African Americans were more likely than whites to listen to music online and to download music from the web according to Pew. It was also talked about that more whites probably had more access to desktop computers than African Americans but both groups enjoyed equal level of laptop ownership. Today both groups are seen not only using PC's and laptops but the trend has gone more to phones, tablets, IPad's and hand held devices where they can view music and other content within seconds. The future of music is and will most likely continue to be through digital and online marketing/sales. According to Forrester Research they said, "It would not be until 2011 that digital sales would overtake physical sales overall." And in 2007 EMI was the only major label to post digital sales that were larger than the physical sales. Wired magazine noted, "The future of music will be as much about "niches" as it is about "hits"." The digital world is becoming a crazy place and it could be for the better or could be for the worse. A lot of talk is about how there is no manufacturing and distribution costs to talk about and no requirements for shelf space.

Entities and Long Tail -

There will still be a place for major labels, blockbuster hits, superstar artists and all the rest even with the fast improving and always changing hip hop industry and popular music. There will still be a limited number of top-tier African American artists and executives such as Jay Z and Beyonce and Antonio Reid (Chairman and Ceo for Epic Records). Overall sales of recorded music have declined to less than half even with digital sales added in. But there are also many other factors that go into the music industry today to promote the artist and his or her music such as touring, merchandising, sponsorship's and engaging social networks. All of that now is just as important as CD sales. The internet has also become a huge part of how direct contact between artist and audience occurs. In today's world the middle tier artists who most likely will never be stocked in a national record chain can still make a name for themselves by self promoting and marketing. What some people knew as rhapsody that has now been taken over by the more advanced streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, Itunes, Apple Music and Audio Mack. Finding yourself to be comfortable in this long tail economy and ever improving digital media is the key to success for the many up and coming artists in the music industry.