The music industry in the United States is much bigger than
the music industry in South Africa. Due to the digital divide, many citizens of
Africa do not have access to computers or the Internet, and they listen to
music on cassettes. Africans that do have access to the Internet have used the
website Musica to download their music. Musica offers over 400,000 songs, and
many of these songs are by U.S. artists. However, Musica is very expensive and
many Africans cannot afford it. Many resort to illegally downloading music for
free.
Similar to people living in Africa, a great deal of U.S.
citizens illegally download music. Multiple websites exist where Americans can
simply cut and paste the link to a YouTube video and download that song onto
their computer within seconds. This quick and easy way of downloading music is
not possible in Africa because they use broadband services. Downloading just
one song can take up to 15 minutes, whereas in that time, someone in the U.S.
could probably download 15 songs. Since it is so easy for Americans to download
so many songs for free, it is no surprise that many people have reduced the
amount of music they purchase and increased the number of free songs they
download. Peer-to-peer file sharing has also caused a decrease in the amount of
music that Americans purchase. The Recording Industry Association of America studied the effects of file sharing and found that since the
file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped
47 percent.
Although U.S. music sales have dropped, we still have much
more music purchases and overall, a much bigger music industry than that of
Africa. In fact, the U.S. is the largest of the world’s music markets, and it
is where the Big 5 music corporations all have headquarters. It is hard
for these corporations to work with Africa because the economic situation
outside of South Africa means a lack of profitable markets. However, the
biggest record label in South Africa, known as Gallo Records, is an exclusive licensee
for Warner Music International. This helps Africa’s music industry grow, and
the industry has made a lot of progress in the past few years.
One of the major problems with Africa’s music industry used
to be that there was no way to download music legally. However, with the
creation of Musica, Africans are able to buy music online and download it
legally. Musica has definitely helped Africa’s music industry grow, but there
is still the issue of Musica’s high-priced songs. Fortunately, this past
December, Apple’s iTunes Store was launched in South Africa. Now that Africans
have access to thousands of more songs, most of which are much cheaper than
songs on Musica, it is likely that more and more people will purchase music.
Musica’s marketing and HR manager, Moenieba Abrahams, predicts that CD sales
will also increase “as they will benefit from additional exposure through
iTunes.” Similar to Africa, the U.S. music industry has benefited from iTunes
and the popularity that this store brings to artists. Although Africa’s music
industry is much smaller than that of the U.S., it is continuing to grow as
more technology is introduced.
The post was very well structured. The headline was clear in telling me what I would be reading about in the post while also informing me about something I didn’t know before. I was unaware that Africa’s music industry was growing, so the headline told me something I didn’t know before I even started reading. The post includes four links to relevant websites and articles that give good additional and background information about the topics discussed in the post.
ReplyDeleteThe main points of the post were to compare the music industry of the United States and Africa. I learned through the post that Africa’s music industry currently is much smaller than that of the United States mainly due to the digital divide. Africa’s music industry is growing due to a website called Musica and iTunes, which both allow people to legally download music. However, the post discussed how both the US and Africa’s music industries face problems regarding illegal music downloads.
I thought it was interesting in the post when it discussed how it can take up to 15 minutes to download just one song in Africa, where it takes less than a minute to do so in the United States. That only helps to understand why the music industry in Africa is so much smaller than it is in the United States.
While I thought the post was very well-structured and informative, one thing that I think could have been added was more statistics about how much music is illegally downloaded in the US and Africa each year. While it discussed how this was becoming a major problem, it did not go into detail regarding numbers. For example, this article http://www.prefixmag.com/news/the-us-illegally-downloads-more-music-than-any-oth/69242/ shows that the US had 96.6 million illegal downloads in the first half of 2012 alone. I think this could have been useful in showing why the music sales in the US, while still the largest, are dropping.
From the outset, the headline that was provided with this article told me exactly what would be discussed in the author's article. While we would all conclude that the music industry in the United States was larger than Africa's, not many would know the specifics regarding the industry in Africa. The author clearly explains that despite the existence of Musica, many Africans are resorting to illegally downloading music, as prices from this website are too high for them to afford. This posting effectively compares the capabilities of the average American and African; Americans have much more computer and internet access than Africans, and thus are able to download music legally and illegally much quicker.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this post, I was unaware that iTunes was introduced in Africa. Right away, I could understand how the music industry in this nation could grow. It was also interesting to learn that as a result of the exposure music would receive through iTunes, CD sales would grow, and music sales in Africa would increase, a much different phenomenon (as the author makes clear) than the decline of music sales in the United States. My only issues with this post are that, perhaps, more information could have been given comparing price points in the two countries (such as per individual songs, on average), as well as other technological advancements that could benefit the African music industry. This New York Times’ article (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/technology/digital-music-the-african-way.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) describes another music service that should benefit Africa.