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How the Internet Revolutionized the Musician and Their Work

It’s easy to get so caught in the beat coming from that radio playlist on Spotify, that we don’t really think about how this artist came about, or even how this song got on Spotify! So many possibilities came as the internet enter the mainstream space, such as social media, knowledge availability, distribution. Band pages on Myspace, tutorials on YouTube, downloading entire instruments; things are very different compared to just a few decades ago.

The internet has changed how musicians work substantially. One of the more straightforward ways is how quickly and easily work can be done remotely. Recordings, tracks, demos and whole project files can be shared in minutes. Musicians can record and edit projects simultaneously thanks to software like Ohm Studio.

This level of speedy communication has also enhanced an artist’s ability to distribute their music online themselves. Many sites allow artists to do this, such as SoundCloud and Bandcamp, but even sites like YouTube are still very applicable to this category. This gives the artist much more control over their work. Typically, a music label like Universal Music Group, or Sony Music would handle how music distributed. With this new way of communication and publishing, an artist could interface with their fan base and a one-to-one level. The trade-off being the need to build an audience from the ground up.

This links directly into social media and how artists present themselves online. Once again this was typically reserved for an expensive and talented marketing team but in the modern case is a responsibility being placed on the artist. Prior to either an artist would simply have to perform in front of many small audiences to gain notoriety.

Independent artists now take time to create, or even invest in their own pages and branding as a method of differentiating themselves from their fellow artists. These pages could be found as early as the mid-2000s on sites like Myspace, and similar pages still exist today on Facebook and Twitter. These pages acted as a hub for their music, shows, and any other information they’d like to share. This further deepens the one-to-one connection between the artist and their fans.

The internet has also brought knowledge to the masses, helping accelerate the learning process for musicians looking to do so. Books and classes were traditionally the methods to learn about music, or sound engineering, or even something like marketing. In contrast, the internet allows artists to delve very deeply into the nuts and bolts of these topics and more. Even books and classes are now distributed online for everyone’s convenience. Again, YouTube houses high quality videos on numerous topics from simple like the 12 notes, to the Circle of Fifths, to Polyrhythms. These are all topics you’d need to go out of your way to have access to.

However, many fields and their participants have benefited in very similar ways due to the internet. What about the tools that have been allotted to them through the internet?

Software for music production certainly existed prior to the internet but shortly after the internet became mainstream, this type of software became incredibly accessible. This new-found accessibility played a huge role in the number of people creating music. It no longer meant you needed expensive equipment or instruments to make something musical, just a common household computer.

Some of the most notable software is Apple’s Garageband and Imagine-Line’s FruitLoops (Now known as FL Studio). This type of software is known as a Digital Audio Workstation or DAW.

DAWs typically come with a variety of tools that allow the user to create melodies and patterns as a method of creating whole pieces of music. They also very often come with audio samples setup in a way to mimic a real-life instrument such as, pianos, guitars, or drums. These included virtual instruments can be lackluster for some artist’s needs and quickly created a market for higher quality virtual instruments.

Companies like 8DIO and Native Instruments create and digitally distribute virtual instruments that are sonically indistinguishable from their real-life counterparts. By meticulously recording every detail that the instrument produces and some well-put-together code, an artist can “download” a 1928 Steinway Grand Piano for a fraction of the cost. Whole orchestras, bass guitars, vintage synthesizers, even one of kind historic Italian violins, all able to be downloaded through the internet for the use in music pieces without ever having to even own an instrument.

Music has completely changed since the internet as entered our lives. Some people might argue that things have become worse. That things have become even more stale, and formulaic. I’d like to ask something of those people.

Perhaps in this new internet-age, don’t look down at the forest and point at the trees that stick out the most on the highest mountain. Go down there and take a good look at everything you see. You might just find something worth looking for. Check out these sites and see for yourself how they’ve changed the music making and distributing process! https://www.native-instruments.com/ https://8dio.com/ https://www.image-line.com/flstudio/ https://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/ https://www.ohmstudio.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ https://twitter.com/ https://myspace.com/ https://www.youtube.com/ https://bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/