The End of Owning Music?

As technology evolved, the music industry has had to evolve with it. First came vinyl, then tapes, but where the quality and convenience of tapes left something to be desired, CDs swooped in to fill those voids. Ever since, most record stores slowly stopped carrying any format other than compact discs, and at a time they were thought to be the be all end all of at-home music enjoyment. And then, the dawn of the digital era.

MP3s were a big game changer, and while at first most downloaded music was done so illegally, music producers started to clue in on the potential profits of digital downloads and started offering consumers and alternative to physical formats. Those record stores that once had to clear out their vinyl displays in favor or smaller CD displays are now doing the opposite, as CD sales are now few and far between, with many audiophiles moving back towards the superior sound of vinyl. But will it be enough for those record stores to survive?

Whereas once the music industry was all too happy to offer digital downloads as an alternative to physical formats, disruptors like Spotify emerged, offering an alternative to outright purchasing music. Many, if not most consumers of music now opt to pay a monthly fee in exchange for the rights to stream as much music as they choose, as opposed to purchasing an album or a song at a time. It’s an already dominant trend that’s only growing, begging the question: Is this the end of owning music? Time will tell.

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