Abstract

The “music industry” is in trouble. Shifting technological change in music production and distribution has resulted in a declining profits for the major record producers. The music industry is thriving. Alternative, indie folk musicians are able to take advantage of the internet and affordable music production technologies to gain an increasing share of the music market. Increasingly, musicians are able to and promote, produce, and distribute their music globally using internet technology such as Myspace, Last.fm, Reverbnation, Tunecore, Facebook, SonicBids.and CD-Baby. All these provide an affordable means for new artists to expand their markets. This paper discusses these new technologies and compares and contrasts them with technological developments over the past century. It discusses the development of the Edison recording machine, the Victrola, analog tape recording, digital tape recording, and mp3 internet technologies. It also discusses developing record production techniques from Enrico Caruso, Les Paul, Phil Spector, Roger McGuinn, and Bjork. The paper includes the theoretical implications for musicians’ entrepreneurship and innovation catalyzed by these developments.