Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2012 The volutE ion of the Music Industry in the Post- Internet Era Ashraf El Gamal Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation El Gamal, Ashraf, "The vE olution of the Music Industry in the Post-Internet Era" (2012). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 532. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/532 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE The Evolution of the Music Industry in the Post-Internet Era SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR JANET SMITH AND DEAN GREGORY HESS BY ASHRAF EL GAMAL FOR SENIOR THESIS FALL 2012 DECEMBER 3, 2012 - 2 - Abstract: The rise in the prevalence of the Internet has had a wide range of implications in nearly every industry. Within the music business, the turn of the millennium came with a unique, and difficult, set of challenges. While the majority of academic literature in the area focuses specifically on the aspect of file sharing within the Internet as it negatively impacts sales within the recording sector, this study aims to assess the Internet’s wider impacts on the broader music industry. In the same time that record sales have plummeted, the live music sector has thrived, potentially presenting alternative business models and opportunities. This paper will discuss a variety of recent Internet-related developments including the rise of legal digital distribution, key economic implications, general welfare effects, changes in consumer preference and social phenomena as they relate to both the recording and live entertainment sectors.