The significance of the effect of continuing development of digital media technology on audiences and institution.

Over the recent years the development of digital media technology has had an effect on both the music industry and its audience.

It could be argued that the digital media has had a negative effect on the music industry, the more the internet offers the audience the more they begin to take advantage. Piracy is a massive issue in the music industry as it means the audience get the music for free, thus meaning the music industry loses out on money. Napster's music industry website shows a comparison from 1999 to 2009. In 1999 the music industry made $14.6 billion overall, yet in 2009 the music industry made only $6.3 billion, this shows a cut in over half the amount grossed in only 10 years.

On the other hand, piracy can be seen as a positive for the music industry, as a recent study by arstechnica (a company that focuses on media such as apple, gadgets and gaming) shows. The study suggests that people who use P2P to get some illegal music actually end up spending more on sites like Itunes than the average non P2P user. So can piracy really be seen as a negative to the music industry if the people using it actually spend more than those who don't?

Another arguement for the music industry that the digital media has positive effects on the music industry, such as the amount of opportunities given to publicise artists. Facebook, Twitter, Itunes and Youtube, all of these sites   have millions of viewers each day, so advertising artists is made easier and reaches out to a lot of people.

Audiences could gain a positive effect from digital media's development, such as infinate access to all their favourite artists. With websites like Youtube and P2P sharing fans can gain access to music for free and are exposed to a wider variety of music than just the CD's you may see in the shops, and free access to music is a positive.

In conclusion, I believe that digital media technology is a positive thing as it makes it easier for audiences to listen to music as a whole and even if there is some piracy, the music industry can make up for it with advertising to millions via digital technology.