win friends amp influence people through music is it possible

Win Friends & Influence People Through Music -- Is It Possible?Writen by Duane Shinn

The idea that studying music improves the social development of a child is not a new one, but at last there is incontrovertible evidence from a study conducted out of the University of Toronto.

The study, published in the August issue of Psychological Science was led by Dr. E. Glenn Schellenberg, and examined the effect of extra-curricular activities on the intellectual and social development of six-year-old children. A group of 144 children were recruited through an ad in a local newspaper and assigned randomly to one of four activities: piano lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons.

Two types of music lessons were offered in order to be able to generalize the results, while the groups receiving drama lessons or no lessons were considered control groups in order to test the effect of music lessons over other art lessons requiring similar skill sets and nothing at all. The activities were provided for one year.

The participating children were given IQ tests before and after the lessons. The results of this study revealed that increases in IQ from pre- to post-test were larger in the music groups than in the two others. Generally these increases occurred across IQ subtests, index scores, and academic achievement.

While music teachers across the country greeted the new research enthusiastically, in fact, many other studies have previously shown a correlation between music study and academic achievement.

In 1997, well known music researchers Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and their team at the University of California (Irvine) reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. A group led by the same two scientists had earlier showed that after eight months of piano lessons, preschoolers showed a 46 percent boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.

The March 1999 issue of Neurological Research published a report by another group of researchers, also at the University of California (Irvine), who found that second-grade students given four months of piano keyboard training, as well as time playing newly designed computer software, scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than other children.

Students with coursework and experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT, according to a Profile of Program Test Takers released by the Princeton, NJ, College Entrance Examination Board in 2001. This report stated that students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation.

Another part of this same study shows that longer music study means higher SAT scores. For example, students participating in the arts for two years averaged 29 points higher on the verbal portion and 18 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. Students with four or more years in the arts scored 57 points higher and 39 points higher on the verbal and math portions respectively than students with no arts coursework.

Another study also found support for a relationship between math achievement and participation in instrumental music instruction. The researchers found that students who participated in instrumental music instruction in high school took on the average 2.9 more advanced math courses then did students who did not participate.

In fact, various studies over the last 10 years suggest teaching kids music can heighten their aptitude for math, reading, and engineering. (One explanation for improved ability in mathematics is that music theory is based on mathematical truths. Rhythms are divided into fractions - half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes. Scales have eight tones, and the steps between them follow an equation.)

A McGill University study in 1998 found that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period. The researchers also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures improved for the students given piano instruction.

And data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 revealed music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non- participants receiving those grades.

In 1994, a report entitled The Case For Music Study In Schools was printed in Phi Delta Kappan, the professional print journal for education. It included details of research conducted by physician and biologist Lewis Thomas, who studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. Thomas found that 66 percent of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group.

The same report asserted that the very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry were, almost without exception, practicing musicians.

The world's top academic countries also place a high value on music education. In a study of the ability of fourteen year-old science students in seventeen countries, the top three countries were Hungary, the Netherlands, and Japan. All three include music throughout the curriculum from kindergarten through high school.

St. Augustine Bronx elementary school, about to fail in 1984, implemented an intensive music program, and today 90 percent of the school's students are reading at or above grade level. And a ten-year study at UCLA tracked more than 25,000 students, and showed that music making improves test scores. Regardless of socio-economic background, music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency exams.

Music training helps under-achievers as well, according to research published in Nature magazine in May 1996. In Rhode Island, researchers studied eight public school first grade classes. Half of the classes became est arts groups, receiving ongoing music and visual arts training. In kindergarten, this group had lagged behind in scholastic performance. After seven months, the students were given a standardized test. The est arts group had caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpassed their classmates in math by 22 percent. In the second year of the project, the arts students widened this margin even further. Students were also evaluated on attitude and behavior. Classroom teachers noted improvement in these areas also.

In 2005, it appears the pace of scientific research into music making has never been greater. The most recent evidence from the University of Toronto confirms what many other researchers have already detected - that music boosts brainpower, academic achievement,socialization skills, and emotional health.

It's logical, when you think about it. People who learn to play an instruments are in groups -- bands, choirs, orchestras, combos, worship teams, etc. And working and making music with others is bound to help relateabilty with people and foster close bonds with fellow musicians.

So it appears that learning to play music, whether guitar, piano, or some other instrument, actually does contribute to your ability to win friends and influence people.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds an advanced degree from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.pianolessonsbyvideo.com He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions with over 55,000 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free two-year subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com/

Related Music Sites : http://www.entertainbox.com > http://www.guitarready.com > http://www.learntomasterpiano.com

free music downloads is it still a big deal

Free Music Downloads: Is it Still a Big Deal?Writen by Nathan T. Lynch

Weve heard about the controversy surrounding Napster and the artists in the music industry who do not want their music downloaded for free. With all of the debates over downloading music for free off of the internet, it might interest you to know exactly what is going on in this arena.

On the original Napster site, people could upload whatever music they had and it share with each other for free, or download whatever music they wanted to add to their library for free. The musicians argued that not only was this process a copyright violation, but also that one of the reasons they are out there working so hard to make music for us, is to in turn, reap some monetary benefits from their efforts. The free music downloads that Napster was supplying in the past, were hindering the public from going out and purchasing CDs because they could get all of the music they wanted, for free, from the website.

Napster.com now offers a free seven-day trial if you register with them on their website. You can listen to as much music as you want during that time, for free, however you can no longer download the songs you want unless you pay for them. After the seven-day trial period is up, it costs between $9.95 and $14.95 per month to be able to utilize their download service. There is no contract to sign, its all on a month-to-month basis, and they also offer discounts for multiple downloads. That price seems pretty reasonable if you think about how much it costs to buy one CD.

Of course, many people are still actively downloading music for free off of the internet. There are quite a few free music download services out there, but you have to be careful. The music downloads might be free, but they are not always legal. Additionally, if you install the downloading software onto your computer, you are running the risk of letting in a ton of spyware, adware and even viruses, which can be harmful to your operating system and in some situations, cause irreversible damage to your computer.

Downloading music, free or otherwise, off of the internet is a convenient and easy way to build your song library. But even though we all want to enjoy our favorite music, whatever genre it may be, its better to be informed and know of the facts before you download in order protect yourself and your computer.

Discover the best free music downloads sites. Multiple download and article resources on the free music download industry.

why are so many music sites making these mistakes

Why Are so Many Music Sites Making These Mistakes?Writen by Dominic Hough

The fundamentals of any site, especially music sites (where the competition is harsh) is to 1) keep the visitors and 2) for the visitors to find you. Most of the methods listed have the other advantage of being search engine friendly.

When your site loads up, it must load up quickly. Any pictures must be quick, and small. This has an advantage. Within 15 seconds your visitors will either be saying I like this site, or only half loaded, I will go to the other site listed on the search engine. The visitor will leave your site and that is one down. If you have other pages listed, would they go back onto your site? Probably not. What the visitor should know is:

1. What your site is about
2. Where to get what they want
3. What other things do you offer.

So with that in mind, any load up animations or any Flash intros should be replaced (I personnally can't stand these, some even have a skip intro button, what is the point of that?! Don't use it!). Any visitor wants information fast, now. Not in 1 minute's time. You can save the anims to another page, direct people to it if they want to download or see it- they can judge it for themselves. The main problem with too slow or no-info main pages is that the search engines know the time people spend on the pages referred from them. In other words, once a surfer has clicked through to a page from a search engine, the engines then see how long the surfer is on there for. If the surfer goes off the page quickly (due to slow loading and frustration) then the engine will deem that page poor, and rate it lower.

MIDI sounds are cool, great on mobile phones, but please leave them off the web-site. It gives a tacky feel to the site. If you are using your own tunes then why use a MIDI file? MP3s are the way to go, use a 1 minute sample of an MP3 if your really have to- sounds better, better quality, and shows off your tunes much better.

Slipknot artists, thats great. But if you link to pages talking about drum n' bass then this is bad. The search engines will rate you much lower if your neighbouring pages are unrelated. Related pages Slipknot sounding, best Slipknot tunes, Slipknot related artists etc is fine and can then open up and can expand your site.

The Alt tag for pictures- always name them. If your page title is called best rock acts, and you include pictures of them, the Alt tag would be called estrockactmetallica. Again this tells the search engine that everything is related to the main topic of the page.

Speak with passion about your subject, include little anecdotes about the topic I went to their concert and they did this. Say how you came about liking the group. Virgin Music is a competitor, they can only go off what the PR people tell them, what the back of the CDs say. They have realised now that the personal touch is much better at selling to customers and attracting them, so they have set up forums. Amazon does the same, but they have your view under the CD that you clicked on. A personalised chat is better than any amount of advertising revenue being thrown at a product.

Make sure you have an RSS feed. If you have a newsletter then you have to wait a while until someone submits their email address (very sacred) and subscribes to you. With an RSS feed they subscribe to your site, but telling their RSS software to pick up the chosen sites feeds. No email addresses given out! If interesting article links catch their fancy they can click through to your site. Becasue you have only asked the software to keep in contact with know sites to you there is no junk. A sort of screened email. It is still in relative infancy, but it is wise to start one now rather than wait. If it catches on you will be at the forefront (most companies don't really know what RSS is or its potential, at the moment). For musicians it is a must. You can put MP3s into links for people to download, increasing your marketing spread. The search engines seem to like RSS, they either list more of your pages or rank your pages slightly higher with a RSS feed attached.

Watch out for your spelling. A search engine will place your site pages much higher than a site that has poor spelling. Even street words could have a negative effect (unless it is a specific searched for keyword)- MP3z, gr8, and tunez to name a few.

Never assume. If you use words like accapella, Vibrato etc how do you know that your readers know the words? If you did your research, then you should know who your visitors are. But always put a glossary, or brackets with an explanation. It can become frustrating for someone who is just starting out to look up another web site to find out what words mean from the first web site. This disregard for new, rookie visitors (you will get quite a few, no question) will have a negative effect on your traffic. People will leave or just get fed-up with a members only site, they could email you with the same question what does this mean, why are you saying that. After a while you then see FAQs appearing.

Never assume, part two. Yeah sure, you know how to work the software, you know how to set your kit up, but it is a really good idea to show how you did so. Pictures help a great deal. With general text screens, after a while your eyes start to see just a blurr of text. Hence that is why most sites use colour, bold, or paragraphs to split text up. Write a guide, write a how to, include pictures, little tales of what happened to you, and write in a logical step-wise manner. Brief and to the point. This demonstrates that you know your subject and are not lying. It also demonstrates commitment, understanding and builds up a great web site term- trust.

Dominic Hough has made music for over 18 years. On his site http://www.make-your-own-dance-and-techno-songs.com he has proved that you can make, and market your own techno songs for free. His site also covers sampling, MP3s, loops and much more.

Related Music Sites : http://www.entertainbox.com > http://www.guitarready.com > http://www.learntomasterpiano.com

music downloads where can i find music to download

Music Downloads: Where Can I Find Music To Download?Writen by Jason D. Barrett

Music downloads are very popular right now and rightfully so. Just image having access to thousands of songs with the ability to get your own digital copy. The proliferation of iPods, iTunes, Napster, MP3 players, high speed internet connections, and CD burners has made the world ripe for digital music. How do you get digital music? You download music to your PC. Thats how.

Where can you find music downloads? There are several services online that provide music download to their customer. You can download music from Walmart for $.88 per song. That is a pretty good deal and they have a nice selection of songs. For the iPod owners out there, you can download music from iTunes. They also have a real nice selection of music and they charge $.99 per song.

If you dont want to use either of those services then you may want to try Napster. Napster actually popularized music downloads back when they gave users access to songs for free. The free music swapping was, of course, shut down and now they charge $9.95 per month for unlimited access to their music library. They currently advertise a selection of 1,500,000+ songs.

Todays version of Napster is called Kazaa. It allows users to share music files amongst themselves. Music downloads through Kazaa are free for now, but expect Kazaa to eventually go the way of Napster. Music companies do not like people to download music for free so the free music downloads will not last forever.

MP3.com also provides visitors music downloads. They actually sell songs through other sites, but they allow you to find and listen to songs before you make a purchase. They have a good selection of songs and even off some music downloads for free.

One last place to look for music downloads is in music user groups. It is common for users in those groups to share music, so you should be able to find music to download if you look hard enough.

For more information on cell phones and the companies that provide cell phone service simply run a search for music download or download music on Google and you will get plenty of addtional information.

Jason D. Barrett is currently focused on writing informative articles for InfoBriefs.com, child insurance articles for ChildInsure.com, and technology articles for ScoutTechnology.com. This is part of his highly successful internet property development approach. Please feel free to contact Jason through one of his sites to see how he can help you develop your own internet property!

More Guitar Learning Site : http://www.guitarready.com/

social networking and music myspace puts it all together in a virtual community

Social Networking and Music: MySpace Puts It All Together in a Virtual CommunityWriten by Scott G

Today's music fan interacts with a community that is far larger than anyone ever dreamed possible before the widespread personal use of the Internet. This social networking is changing the way people market and sell music and it's doing so on a global scale.

Here's How:

One fan hears a song and ells a dozen others online. Each, in turn, sends the information (and sometimes the entire song file) to another dozen people, and so on. If the song's hook is catchy and universal enough, the artist can reach thousands of fans in a matter of seconds. It's fast, it's easy, it's free, and it's global.

Does this viral communication bring any income for that artist (or songwriter, or publisher, or manager, or agent, or distributor, or record label)? No. But does it provide vital publicity that has the potential of selling singles, albums, concert tickets and merchandise? Absolutely.

The New Means of Marketing:

This is a quantum shift in marketing. It holds out the possibility of bypassing brick-and-mortar distribution, while severely curtailing the barely-legal forms of radio promotion that many in the industry openly refer to as payola or commercial station extortion.

All this is possible thanks to an ever-growing variety of online forms of communication, including music sites, web portals, blogs (weblogs), music forums, and more. A new site called MySpace.com has put all of these elements together in one place. And because of their vision, MySpace is becoming an information destination for bands, fans, filmmakers, writers, artists, record industry professionals, and more.

The MySpace Nation: Where do you live? used to be a question that was spoken out loud; it's now typed. The answer to that question used to simply signify which part of a city you were from, with an accompanying suggestion of your socio-economic status, and a hint about which mall might be your usual hangout; it now refers not only to your city, but also your state, region or country.

Your virtual scene may involve people anywhere on the globe. My virtual community begins in Los Angeles and extends to Moscow, Big Bear, Amsterdam, San Francisco, London, New York, Miami, and several places I have not yet learned to spell correctly. In fact, thanks to social networks like MySpace, one can interact with several scenes. The people who like my goth songs overlap slightly with the rave-trance songs on my remix album, but they are not interested in the music I create for radio and television commercials (they can be quite disdainful of it, in fact). But each social network welcomes news of new music in their own favorite styles.

MySpace: The Future is Now

With two million members (and growing), MySpace.com offers a multi-level entertainment opportunity involving blogs, instant messaging, classifieds, peer voting, special interest groups, user forums and user-created content. Is it popular? You bet: they have statistics that show the site receiving 35 million impressions per day at an average of one hour online per visit. So far, all MySpace services are free, with the site supported entirely by advertisers who are eager to reach exactly the young, web-savvy and web-social music fan that MySpace.com attracts.

Created by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, MySpace is already successful on a level that caught many industry onlookers by surprise. While the main MySpace site leads to pure social networking, the section of the site called MySpace Music is a revolutionary way to reach their built-in web audience of two million networked users, and has the potential of rapidly expanding beyond that already impressive figure. As a means of launching unsigned and emerging recording artists, MySpace Music is a formidible tool.

Inside the Minds of the MySpace Creators:

MySpace Music is what MP3.com should have been, but never was, Anderson said. Very few people go to a website looking for bands they've never heard of. MySpace Music lets people find music online in the same way they find out about music in person: through their friends. Millions of friends come to MySpace to socialize, and through that process -- word of mouth and recommendations of friends -- bands get exposure to new fans and fans to new music. DeWolfe continues, The most exciting use of MySpace Music is the way it's changing the band-to-fan dynamic. A band can go on MySpace and find potential fans all over the country just by sending an e-mail and saying 'Hello.' Bands are developing followings and finding street teams online. Offering downloads, band web pages, and the ability to connect directly with artists is just part of the attraction of MySpace Music. Each visitor to the site also can participate via user testimonials and ratings. The artists are also able to access a wide variety of music business contacts.

Details from DeWolfe:

G-Man: What's the history of MySpace?

Chris DeWolfe: We launched the general MySpace site in September of 2003. Our vision was to create a portal where our users could mobilize and connect around shared interests -- whether those interests be music, television, dating, nightlife, politics, religion or anything else.

G-Man: How does music fit into the MySpace network?

Chris DeWolfe: Almost from the day we launched, music became one of the primary interests of MySpace users. We believe that most people hear and sample new music based on recommendations from friends. The network affect of our site (friends telling friends), allows new trends and music to spread very quickly. At the same time, bands began flocking to MySpace as a mechanism to promote themselves, find new fans, book shows, and even secure label deals.

G-Man: What are the revenue streams for MySpace?

Chris DeWolfe: MySpace is currently supported by online advertising and sponsorship. We may add premium services later, but any service we currently offer for free will stay that way. We've been lucky to secure top tier advertisers such as Sony Music, Interscope, Warner Music, Dreamworks, Napster and others. The promotion works for these types of advertisers because most of our users are hip 18-34 year-old influencers who love music and frequently go to movies during the opening weekend.

G-Man: What are the advantages for artists using MySpace?

Chris DeWolfe: Artists may sell their CDs on our site. The primary use so far has been for bands to mobilize new fans who they ordinarily wouldn't have met. A band from Iowa can quickly develop a following in New York or Los Angeles. Additionally, bands use the site to book tours and fill venues. The MySpace social network is international. Because MySpace is an online network, it makes geographical boundaries less relevant.

G-Man: Can you compare the MySpace entity with other networking sites?

Chris DeWolfe: Most sites are narrowly focused on business networking, classifieds, or dating. MySpace is a portal that uses a social networking infrastructure. MySpace includes, games, blogs, music, classifieds, forums, mail, instant messaging, and user rankings. Our model has lead to an incredibly sticky site where the average user spends over an hour per session on the site. We have also served more page views than our largest competitor in each of the last three months.

MySpace is just extending functionality around existing mass behavior. Most if not all of those other sites didn't or don't have that luxury -- they were counting on behavior to develop around functionality. To put it another way, we're not building it, hoping people will come. People are already on the site sharing information about bands; bands are already recruiting fans and local help; users are already clamoring to download music; they're already ranking and rating music; they're already showing up at our parties to hear music they learned about on MySpace. MySpace music works because two million people are already doing what we're now making it easier for them to do.

G-Man: What marketing arenas are involved (or planned to be involved) with MySpace?

Chris DeWolfe: Two of our bigger marketing partners are the Warped Tour and Rock The Vote. The Warped Tour, in particular, is a great fit for us. We are sponsoring the Uproar Stage and bands from MySpace will be playing at Warped Tour venues. This partnership offers great exposure for MySpace Music and participating MySpace Music bands.

Rock the Vote is also a great partner as it fits in with our mission of allowing our users to mobilize around shared interests. MySpace users can register to vote directly from our home page. We will also be participating in several of their music shows.

MySpace Phenomenon On-the-Grow: Strategic partnerships are developing almost as fast as bands are meeting fans on the site. The Los Angeles Music Network (www.lamn.com) will bring its membership base and marketing strength into a partnership arrangement with MySpace.

Linking listeners, reaching behind borders, and uniting musicians with fans and industry professionals, the MySpace nation is a phenomenon. Since a passport is free, everyone in music marketing had better pay a visit. It's at http://www.myspace.com. See you there.

# # #

Scott G is president of G-Man Music & Radical Radio. His music is on commercials for Verizon Wireless, Goodrich, Monaco Motor Coaches, BAE Systems and more. A creative director of the National Association of Record Industry Professionals (NARIP) and a member of The Recording Academy (NARAS), he writes about music for MusicDish.com and the Immedia Wire Service. The G-Man's albums are released by Delvian Records and are on Apple's iTunes. He can be reached via http://www.gmanmusic.com and http://www.myspace.com/thegman.

Related Music Sites : http://www.entertainbox.com > http://www.guitarready.com > http://www.learntomasterpiano.com

succeed in the music biz with crazy keywords

Succeed In the Music Biz with Crazy KeywordsWriten by Jerome Ford

What is more important in today's music business?

A.) Having a great sound?

B.) Executing a great marketing strategy?

If you chose B, you may be on your way to stardom. In today's music business, having an effective web marketing strategy can make the difference between you being a local, national or international music star.

A key element in your web marketing strategy should be the selection of your bands name. Why? Because your bands name will also become your bands keyword on the Internet.

I'm sure you've heard of references to AOL Keywords, but AOL isn't the only place where people use keywords for search. Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and many other search engines use keywords to help millions of people find what they are looking for on-line.

If someone is looking for information about your band on the Internet, they are most likely, going to type your bands name into a search engine. When the search engine returns the results, you'll want your website, or your myspace page to be in the top of the listings.

My suggestion is to choose a crazy (or very creative) keyword. A crazy band name, when used as a keyword, will help your listings in search engines beyond your wildest imagination.

For example, let's examine two keywords for two music acts - Panic At the Disco, a rock band and Algebra a soul and r&b group.

When I Googled Panic at the Disico, Google returned 10,300,000 results. On the first page of Googles search results, every listing led me to information about the rock band, Panic At the Disco.

The very first Google listing, for Panic at the Disco, was for the bands video It's Better If You Do.

The second listing for Panic at the Disco was their bands website, panicatthedisco.com.

The third result was Panic At the Disco at purevolume.com.

The fourth result was Panic at the Discos' myspace page.

Fith was Panic at the Disco lyrics.

Get the picture? The first page in Googles' search results was all Panic at the Disco. Panic at the Disco is on an Indie Label.

Now let's briefly look a Algebra, a R&B Group on a Major Label.

I Googled Algebra, and you can guess my results. The term Algebra returned 86,000,000 results in Google. Algebra, the R&B Group wasn't listed anywhere in the first 10 pages of results. Most people doing searches will not dig past page two - in any search engine. The likelihood of the R&B Group Algebra, having any success on the Internet (from a marketing stand-point) is very slim.

So the lesson to be learned here is: choose a crazy or creative keyword and band name. With a crazy keyword people can find you easily on the Internet and that can improve your on-line marketing efforts by over 100%

Jerome C. Ford works directly with national, local, Indie and Major Label aritsts. Jerome is a 20 year Radio and Records veteran, Music Marketing expert, Music Business Consultant and Vice President of http://www.simbiz.info, a music business consultancy. Find out more about succeeding in today's music business by logging onto http://www.simbiz.info.

More Music Related Sites : http://www.learntoplaydrum.com/

how the internet helps musicians

How the Internet Helps MusiciansWriten by Scott Richards

Everyone talks about the negative impact of the Internet on the music business. Illegal file sharing and copyright violations have decimated the profits in the industry. Record labels are less willing to take risks with new artists because the profits have dried up. Sales have steadily declined over the past several years due in large part to the proliferation of illegal downloads. All of that is true, but there are two sides to this coin. Sure, things are tougher today for the new musician than ever before, but there are also new opportunities thanks to the Internet.

The Internet has reduced the barriers to entry into the music business. Today thanks to the rapid evolution in technology, a musician can record a song and share it with listeners around the world. In the past, distribution was controlled by the record labels. Unless you had a record deal it was almost impossible to reach listeners outside of your immediate area.

Distribution was not only controlled, but there was no way around the high costs of physical distribution. Manufacturing a batch of CDs or tapes could be prohibitively expensive for the starving artist. However, with free MP3 distribution via the internet, an artists music can reach across the world. An up and coming Latin diva can share her tunes with someone in Europe. The next rock star in Africa can share his music with someone in Japan. The Internet has opened a door that allows artists to share their art with anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Now with online retailers like Amazon, artists can even market and sell their music themselves. Sure its tough and dont expect to make much money. But singers and bands can share and sell their music without depending on a record label in ways today that were impossible a decade ago.

The Internet helps people connect. Music is a deeply personal experience and people have their own preferences in what they listen to. The Internet lets people who prefer a particular style to group together easier and allows them to talk about new artists that they never would have had the chance to hear otherwise.

Now, dont get me wrong. Music is a tough business. With declining sales and tighter profits it is harder for anyone to make a living in the music business. However, if you have a good day job and you love to make music for the sake of the music itself, then the Internet can be an incredible enabler.

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