Essay Plan

The impact of the Internet on the media industry is revolutionary:

- Web 2.0 sites such as YouTube and sound cloud allow people to share their music without needing a record label. Bands can use these sites as well as social networking ones such as Facebook and Twitter to promote themselves and reach a wider audience.

- consumers can listen to music online through online radio, streaming sites such as We7 and YouTube. This gives them more choice in what they can listen to and allows them to bypass the large conglomerates or gatekeepers for the industry

- individual's can become prosumers, producers and consumers by interacting online and making their own music on sites such as StudioPros. This means they can be more creative and social, as they have the ability to collaborate globally with other people.

- piracy has become a problem because it is easy for people to share songs online. The problem existed before but on a much smaller scale because copying CDs was harder. It is a problem because it takes away profits from the music industry.

- there are now more ways for people to purchase music. As well as just going to a high street store such as HMV they can now buy online. Sites such as iTunes and Amazon have much more music choice as they have larger music libraries, allowing for more diversity within the industry.
- Most of these points can be seen as revolutionary because they allow people to do more and interact more.  However piracy is not revolutionary and can be a big problem for profit making in the media industry.