Music on the internet today

Top ten music-related sites on the WWW
(Source: Yahoo search engine, September 1998)

Genre sites and music guides

Two categories of music and genre information sites are currently to be found on the Internet - industrial sites, i.e. those created and maintained by music companies, bands and/or independent distribution companies, and aficionado sites, i.e. those created by enthusiasts of particular genres, artists or movements. [17] Until recently, both types of sites have primarily acted as information sites for a particular genre, or for an artist and/or their products, and many music web-sites are still only electronic brochures, featuring mainly text information, graphic elements such as band photographs and logos, and some sound and/or video examples. This is not far removed from what IUMA were achieving five years ago.

Since the Internet has become a medium for fans to publish their own content more freely and more open to the world than any other medium than any other before it, many of the online music-based sites are created and maintained by the fans of the genres or artists they promote. For example, there are currently 67 sites devoted to Madonna (Yahoo listings, September 1998), though only the Madonna" target="_blank">Warner Music site is officially endorsed. Many of these fan sites are constructed from existing promotional material such as press cuttings, press releases, sleeve notes, music videos, albums/singles and publicity/press kits. Some music fans knowledgeable in original digital design techniques for the Internet have been fortunate enough to gain employment as the official Web designers for record labels/bands who wish to have an Internet presence, but who have little knowledge of the technology involved. One example is Steve Price, author of the Orbital fanzine Loopz, who was recently commissioned to redesign the official Orbital web-site.

Record labels

According to Philip Hayward, the Internet has "offered minor and/or "independent" record companies a (limited, and arguably temporary) opportunity to attract attention to their operation, artists and products by establishing attractive web sites [18]. By August 1998, the World Wide Web 's Yahoo search engine listed around 2,000 labels with a web presence, including the major labels Sony, Polygram, Warner Music Group, BMG, EMI-Capitol and Virgin.

The music industry is notorious for being a cutthroat industry that either consumes or destroys small enterprises, but the advent of the Internet has allowed those with very little revenue or corporate clout to maintain a modest Web presence, and to compete against the major labels in the digital domain. While major labels compete by awarding their web sites more dynamic graphics, increased interactive possibilities, exclusive online sounds and/or videos and special offers, smaller independent labels can exploit niche markets by developing their brand names, to appeal to specific audiences. More importantly, independents are allowed to create a sense of identity among their target groups not offered by the sprawling, multi-genre major labels. A feeling of belonging to a virtual community is still important to many who use the Internet, especially in the music industry's main consumer demographic of Under-35s, and independent labels have always been more successful at achieving cult status in youth culture than the majors.

The Internet allows independent labels to target and cater for these specialised audiences on a global scale without the traditional barriers encountered in the industry, such as struggles for radio and TV airtime, magazine articles/reviews and, more importantly, retail shelf space. Record label web sites are fast becoming self-contained promotional vehicles for recording artists, offering every medium and marketing outlet previously limited to independents. Labels will eventually have their own radio and video stations, label magazines and retail outlets. Per pound/dollar spent, the Internet is by far the most efficient means of promotion for companies on a limited budget, and the most effective means of building and maintaining a world-wide fan base on a scale never before imagined by independent labels [19].

Internet radio

The development of audio encoding and delivery software such as Real Audio and Liquid Audio has enabled radio stations to operate as viable online businesses which appear mostly in two forms –

• Radio on the Internet – the distribution of existing radio content with the aid of a music encoder, made available to the public as live or on-demand broadcasts. Used to enhance and promote their traditional broadcasting services, radio stations such as these include BBC Radio 1 and Virgin Radio.
  
  
• Radio for the Internet – original radio content specifically designed for the Internet, allowing for diverse audiences and the personalisation capabilities of the medium. Stations such as these include SonicNet that includes music that, as is stated on their web-site, has been "composed, performed and recorded solely for real-time broadcast on the Web using real audio". Californian Radio HK declares itself "the first station to broadcast exclusively into the Internet, Real Time, Non Stop" and pioneered the legal use of audio on the World Wide Web with a trial licensing agreement with US publishing rights organisation ASCAP (the American Society of Performers, Authors and Publishers).

The second of these is the more innovative of the two formats, though both offer the following advantages over traditional (broadcast) radio –

• No physical barriers or limitations such as distance, mountains etc, and the signal can reach beyond the scope of AM or FM signals (inside office buildings, tunnels etc)
  
  
• Not limited to local listening audiences, providing easy access to highly targeted national and global audiences.
  
  
• Not limited by broadcast spectrum limitations, so any one Internet radio station can develop an unlimited number of highly targeted niche formats (e.g. not only several specialised shows, but also several specialised sub-channels running several programmes simultaneously).
  
  
• Offers on-demand archived content so that audiences can choose their own programming at their leisure.
  
  
• Content is not subject to Radio Authority (now part of OFCOM) regulations, since it does not use airwaves, and as such, requires no radio license or broadcast tower, eliminating substantial set-up costs.
  
  
• The multimedia format of the Internet allows users access to video clips, images and other editorial information concerning the current playlist and the channel in general.

Webzines

Another traditional entertainment medium that has recently adapted to the Internet is the music magazine, known in its digital format as a webzine or e-zine. Again, these companies fall into two main categories – consumer and industry titles. Industry titles include Rolling Stone Online, the digital equivalent of the century-old American music industry trade magazine, and Webnoize, a new magazine concerned exclusively with the music industry on the Internet, and its affiliated technologies. The magazine differs from Rolling Stone in that it is exclusively a Web-based journal (i.e. not available in a traditional published format). Consumer titles include the exclusively Web-based fanzine Addicted To Noise, which was one of the first music webzines and remains one of the most famous and largest-growing publications on the Internet. A recent addition is nme.com, the official site of the British music weekly NME, which has now extended beyond the dwindling readership of its print version, offering a rich multimedia experience of both unsigned and new music to a global audience.