Looking at the number of people who wander through their day with headphones on, it’s easy to take for granted the fact that music is now portable. But portable, mobile music is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating back to July 1, 1979, the day the first commercially-available Walkman went on sale. In the thirty years since, the industry has seen numerous innovations, but none as significant as that pocket-sized cassette player that let people step away from their stereos and hi-fi systems and go out into the streets, listening to the music of their choice.
The changes to the way we purchase and use music have become even more rapid in recent years, with the focus squarely on digital music. The advent of the compact disc in 1982 was the first step, moving away from the imperfect analog recordings of cassette tapes and vinyl records more perfectly reproducible digital formats. While detractors might bemoan the loss of analog’s so-called warmth, it’s safe to say that digital clarity is here to say. The proliferation of the home computer and improvements in recording and playback technology (CD/DVD/Blu-Ray) has put a great deal of power in the hands of the consumer, and even the slightly computer-savvy computer user can rip songs from the media that he or she owns with complete fidelity and transfer them to their portable media player of choice.
In fact, the great strength of digital music (that it is perfectly reproducible, with no loss of information between each generation of recording) may also be the bane of the recording industry. The legality of migrating one’s music from one digital format to another is constantly being questioned in the courts, and of course piracy is even more of an issue now that it is so easy for one person to make their own perfect copy or copies of a digital recording. While this battle is one for the courts, the music industry is not sitting still, but instead is looking at ways to thwart the pirates and make it easier for people to get their hands on high-quality digital music.
The convergence of the portable music player and the mobile phone is working in their favour. The newest generation of mobile phones also includes the ability to store and play back digital music, and even arguably the most distinctive phone of the last decade, Apple’s iPhone, is an evolved version of a portable music player. Using cellular networks for the sale and distribution of music, mobile phone operators have transcended the traditional music store, giving their subscribers the ability to purchase music almost instantly over the air, without interrupting their mobility. This renewed ease of consumption is a feature that pirates cannot duplicate, and the use of digital rights management (DRM) embedded directly into the music itself limits piracy of these digital tracks. In fact, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has identified mobile music as a key area for innovation in its white paper titled “Asia Mobile Telecommunication Innovations”.
Countries like Japan and Korea have already seen their music industries revitalized through the use of mobile music, with the market valued at USD 390 million in Korea alone. Music piracy has dropped to negligible levels in Korea, and its model of music distribution is currently being duplicated elsewhere in Asia.
The sale and distribution of mobile music represents an area where the music industry and the mobile communications industry have a common interest, because it protects the interests of former, while offering the latter the chance to monetize their data services by offering downloadable or streamed music. The consumer will see only lowered costs and ease of use, particularly since they have the freedom to purchase music on a track-by-track basis, or to acquire music as and when it is desired.
This is a win-win situation for all parties, and the future looks bright. As technology improves and makes it easier and more convenient, and as competition drives prices down to ever-more-affordable levels, it seems more and more likely that the enduring existence of the music industry will be dependent on mobile music.