The revolution of audio distribution was led by the industries’ condition that transformed the music as in converted the traditional albums and songs and converted them into digitally recorded media formats that is mp3. This MP3 media format stored more songs or media by reducing its size. It enabled the digital media players to play songs with more clarity. These mp3 formats could be easily downloaded on personal computers and shared via internet with other users by Napsters which was a popular application to share media files online. Another feature that revolutionized the digital music was the software that converted music from CDs to MP3 format. From MP3 these media files were freely shared and distributed in MP3 format with other users possessing similar sharing applications.

The most benefitted consumers from the digital revolution were the consumers of music especially the ones who had access to internet and personal computers. As the sharing of media files in the MP3 format was increased so the users could freely acquire available media files and share them with each other.

2.      Why did the music stores created by the record labels fail to attract many subscribers? What if anything, should the record labels have done differently?

The record labels created music stores that failed to attract subscribers and consumers because they used heavy and expensive proprietary file formats. The formats of these songs had limited playability as they were not able to play on various playing devices. The digital rights of these songs were also limited due to which it offered limited media selection. On the other hand the applications like Napster, Kaazaa, Gnutella, iTunes provided unrestricted and large peer to peer free media selection and sharing services in the newest formats at very low costs and all the media was obtained from authorized stores as well. These unrestricted media sharing applications led the music stores created by record labels to become ineffective and outdated becoming a failure.

The subscription services like MusicNet and Pressplay were offering to download music legitimately form the internet. However these labels also used proprietary file formats limiting the digital media rights management (DRM) schemes, it also confused users as the breadth of selection was not as good as other peer to peer pirated music sharing services. These labels could collaborate with Napsters or develop other open dominant design candidates with harmonizing goods to up their game.

The record labels should have managed the increasing competition by considering changing their prevailing media format in to MP3 format to keep up with the new trends and changing media trends which were preferred by the consumers. By doing this the record labels could cope up with the competition and antagonism infuriated by the free media sharing formats and online apps available to consumers up to some level.

3.      What factors led iTunes to be successful?

Steve jobs the owner of Apple opened iTunes music store on April 28, 2003. He was the savior for RIAA. He made agreements with the big record labels including Sony, Universal, BMG Warner music group and EMI. An initial catalog was launched by iTunes including 200,000 songs available for purchase at only 99cents for each song. The success rate of iTunes was so high that initially in its first year about 50 million downloads took place. It became the leading music distribution service for online music. Recording industries put faith in their services because they guaranteed protection against illegal sharing of music via fairplay DRM scheme. ITunes offered two audio file formats that is the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and modified MP3s. the DRM restricted songs to be uploaded on only five computers. These songs were only played on iPods and the files were hidden via subdirectory structure so no one could email or distribute it over the web. ITunes got success because of many features; the company was invigorated as having a cool image that attracted many users and recording industries. They offered the MP3 format which was user friendly at very affordable prices. It was basically a one stop shop for downloading music of various record labels because of their agreement with five big record labels. The prices for the entire album were therefore discounted for the users. The success of iTunes increased because of IPods as they were portable and hard disk based MP3 players.

4.      What new models of music distribution have emerged and what do you think will influence whether they endure?

Many new models of distribution have emerged where music streaming can be done where consumers only pay to play the songs instead of owning the song just like Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Apple iTunes Radio etc. these online music streaming services allowed listeners to stream and hear music online and untether the available data. Customers will be able to download applications to their mobile phones with less effort required into their digital music libraries without an issue of choosing overwhelming design or DRM restriction. Apple negotiated with all the music record labels for accepting pricing models to accommodate clients and their incomes for music makers and their recording industry. Some say that these factors withholding their music clarified that this payment model was uncalled for and these services tore apart collection deals. Whereas some musicians and labels said that this was a capacity of conveying a legitimate option for them to catch important data about their audience members and they can get remunerated on a per play basis