Mp3 downloads and you
p2p news / p2pnet: If you’re into mp3 players and downloading, you may be taking music for granted.
That’s the conclusion drawn by researchers at Britain’s University of Leicester.
The development of the mass media in the 20th century meant music became much more widely and readily available and so it, “arguably lost its aura of automatic aesthetic value,” says music psychologist Adrian North who, with professor David Hargreaves, Centre for International Research on Creativity and Learning in Education, University of Roehampton, and Jon Hargreaves, now a graduate of the University of York, monitored 346 people over two weeks.
Music is now, “viewed as a commodity that was produced, distributed and consumed just like any other,” the team concluded.
Certainly, EMI, Sony BG, Vivendi Universal, and Warner Music, the members of the Big Four Organized Music cartel, would agree with that. They see tunes as ‘product’ and are trying to sue ‘consumers’ into buying more of it.
“The pace of technological change has accelerated further over the last 20 years or so, and these fundamental changes in the nature of musical experience and value have arguably become even more pronounced,” says North. “Because so much music of different styles and genres is now so widely available via portable mp3 players and the internet, it is arguable that people now actively use music in everyday listening contexts to a much greater extent than hitherto.
“Music can now be seen as a resource rather than merely as a commodity. People might consciously and actively use it in different situations at different levels of engagement, such that listening contexts ultimately determine the value of the musical experience to the individual listener.
“However the degree of accessibility and choice has arguably led to a rather passive attitude towards music heard in everyday life: The present results indicate that music was rarely the focus of participants’ concerns and was instead something that seemed to be taken rather for granted, a product that was to be consumed during the achievement of other goals. In short, our relationship to music in everyday life may well be complex and sophisticated, but it is not necessarily characterised by deep emotional investment.”
The Who’s Pete Townshend recently posted in his blog that listening to mp3s through headphones could cause serious hearing problems.
Also See:
University of Leicester – Why Music Downloads have Lost the X Factor, January 9, 2006
listening to mp3s – Pete Townshend on hearing loss, January 4, 2006
