The Internet and Popular Music
The internet is certainly one of the most powerful and sometimes controversial mediums for distributing music. There are numerous web sites with English versions that sell Korea's popular music like yesasia.com and annyoung.com. There are also sites or forums where entire Korean albums have been uploaded and are available for downloading. This of course has been a subject of heated debate in the United States where the Recording Industry Association of America has tried to crack down on the sharing of copyrighted music.
I think that in Korea's case, the issue is more complex and interesting. The rapid growth of Korea's economy has created and interconnection between popular music and the internet. I think it is taken as a given that the internet is a place to explore music. There are forums where people tell others to download music, delete it after experimenting with it, and then go out and buy the music to support the artists. Although it is usually the most loyal fans who propose these procedures, I still think it is a unique and effective internet business model. I'm not sure if music companies in Korean have tried to stop illegal downloading but I have read about artists who promote the internet as an essential tool to help spread their music.
The sitauation in America is different because record companies remember the golden days when people had no choice but to buy the physical copies. For Korean on the other hand, the internet is extrememly effective in reaching audiences around the world who otherwise would have never even known that pop music exists in Korea. So because the Hallyu wave is as much about the rise of the internet as it is the rise of popular music, Korean record companies and artists have a distinct advantage in that the internet seems like the natural vehicle in which their music can make a name for it self.
posted by mike tesauro @ 10:27 PM
4 Comments:
The use of the internet to distribute music in Korea is so different than in the US, I had no idea. That's cool that record companies are less paranoid about copyright infringement, etc. Hopefully the situation in Korea will prompt American record companies and artists to think more progressively about the internet instead of just fighting against it constantly.
I heard that Korean artists are more liberal with fans downloading their music off of the internet because it is faster for the sake of their own promotion. Many Korean artists start out as underground artists and have to create a fan base on the internet before they can ever hope to become a mainstream artist.
Hmmm....after reading the comments I think Asia may be more lax about internet music piracy in general. Many Chinese search engines have direct http links to download copyrighted music. In addition it is popular to download whole albums from Chinese torrent sites. Finally, I do agree that the internet is exposing me to alot of Asian music that I wouldn't hear anyways b/c I live in the US. Most of the Jpop and Cpop that I like I got off the internet so I would think it would be reasonable to get more exposure to Kpop that way.
even though you tell others to delete the files off of the computer, i wonder if people honestly adhere to that: i already have the song, why bother going to buy the disk. maybe i was never a hardcore fan of anyone, so i do not agree with that concept.
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