3.2 Seeing Internet technology as a chance
In the last years the music industry understood the Internet above all as a marketing and advertising instrument; by providing single songs or parts of songs the online surfer could be made interested in buying the products. But with the technological and infrastructural progress the labels now realize that the Internet can also be used as a way to distribute and sell music, without the involvement of record shops and intermediaries, and without the necessity to produce a sound carrier in physical form. By getting in contact with the individual buyer, the labels can offer products according to the individual taste, and get information about their target groups. CDs in MP3-format can carry up to 14 hours of music, and since many Internet-users have a stereo connected to the computer, they can use it as a playing device like a tape deck or a CD player.
Especially small and independent labels saw their chances in reaching a big audience through the World Wide Web without a huge investment in marketing, and unsigned artists can publish their music without the help of any record company. The Swedish Internet label swebmusic.com is owned by the involved artists, and by providing songsamples and selling in the MP3-format concepts like this gain momentum.
Many independent artists have embraced the new format in seeing the value through underground marketing and trade, the direct contact to fans and the possibility for everyone to publish - bringing the power back to the people.
The biggest player on the MP3-market is the Internet label MP3.com, which provides 56.000 free MP3-files of more than 11.000 artists on their webpage.
[77] They also offer Digital Audio Music (DAM)-CDs of their artists with songs recorded both in regular CD audio and MP3 format, but most of their financing is made through advertising on the Internetsite.MP3 gave rise to new labels on the Internet, like musicmatch.com or the most known, GoodNoise.com that acts as label, distributor and retailer of music. They sell music by song or album and charge around $1 for a single and $9 for a whole album.
The major labels have not really entered the Internet market yet - like most big bureaucratic organizations they are slow to respond to new developments, and too much money is at stake to precipitate the involvation without secure standards; but if they wait too long, they might be run over by new competitors and the dynamics of the new medium.