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The digitisation of music has enabled new media technologies to change the way people consume music. The consumption of music has shifted away from the physical traditional forms of music such as CDs and vinyl towards digital forms such as downloads and streaming (Rogers & Peterson, 2015). The overall value of record sales has dropped from a high of US$38.7 billion in 1999, to $24.4 billion at the end of 2010 (Rogers & Peterson, 2015). The emergence of streaming from new technologies has changed the way people experience music. Music streaming can be described as ‘music in the cloud’ (Marshall, 2015). Spotify is considered to be an ‘on-demand’ streaming service, and allows the user to choose what they want to listen to. It is interactive and does not have the limitation of browsing an individual’s own collection; instead it provides its users with a large catalogue of music and will make recommendations based on what the user listens to (Marshall, 2015). The emergence of streaming has allowed music listeners to experience music in a new way and gives users the option to listen to music on mobile platforms such as smartphones, offline and when traveling.

 

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The convergence of music has been enabled by the changing technologies and social change. Burgess (2017) describes the convergence of media as “the tendency of separate media technologies, cultural forms, and/or social practices to come together to perform similar functions and make new hybrid media systems”. Jenkins (2004) also expresses convergence as altering “relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences”. There are two parts to media convergence, firstly a physical medium which can perform a range of functions which previously needed to be completed separately, for example; smartphones have a variety functions such as phone calls, web browsing and listening to music (Burgess, 2017). Secondly a cultural function may be implemented through one or more technologies, for example; TV content can be consumed on a personal computer or smartphone (Burgess, 2017).

 

Music convergence has been developed by the emergence of new technologies and the new ways of delivering media. These new technologies have lowered production and distribution costs now allow users to “archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content in powerful new way” (Jenkins, 2004). Convergence reflects the reconfiguration of media power.

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The increased availability of music online has reduced the influence of the traditional music industry. The changing digital economy has allowed more access to listeners and moved away from traditional physical forms of music. Music consumption has moved away from CDs and vinyls. Convergence reflects the reconfiguration of media power and the reshaping of media economics.

 

The availability of more free content (the user does not have to pay a subscription on Spotify) has provided greater access to music and allowed amateur musicians and producers to have a platform to share their own work on without the input of the music industry. The subscription-based model Spotify uses allows users to have the broadest range of content, which is why people are moving towards streaming and away from the traditional forms. This growth in streaming can be seen with Spotify which was reported to of had 83 million paying subscribers (Statista, 2018).

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The reconfiguration of recorded music consumption has seen an alteration in the way musicians get paid. They are no longer making money from the sales of physical copies, but instead making money per stream of a song. These micro-payments are devaluing music, with the key to these streaming services being converting free users in to paying subscribers so there can be a greater return to labels and musicians (Marshall, 2015).

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The emergence of digitisation and convergence has seen a change in the relationships between consumers and producers (Burgess, 2017); the convergence of music has changed consumers’ music buying and listening habits, and shifted power to them. Music convergence, allowed by the development of new technologies, has driven a changing shift in patterns of media ownership (Jenkins, 2004). Burgess (2017) describes this new way of living in and through media as emphasising ““authorship, ‘accelerated reflexivity’ and the blurring of boundaries between cultural production and the practice of everyday life… and has normalised the very idea of living in a state of constant newness”. Jenkins also describes the cultural shifts, legal battles and economic changes as preceding changes in the technological infrastructure. Convergence reflects the reconfiguration of media power and the reshaping of media economics. This has influenced the way listeners consume music as they are learning how to use different media technologies, such as music streaming with Spotify, to allow the flow of media under their control and interact with other users. Listeners are moving towards more control in the flow of media which has previously been dominated by the recording industry.

 

The availability of on-demand music streaming on Spotify has greatly influenced the reconfiguration of the music industry and how users consume music, as it moves away from being based on ownership and being based on access and renting instead of buying music (Marshall, 2015). The growth in on-demand streaming has seen musicians and music companies argue that this change has undermined physical media, which has altered the financial model, making it hard for them to sustain their careers (Marshall, 2015). In this way, power has shifted from producers to consumers, as they have more choice and freedom with streaming. Consumers no longer have to purchase a whole album for one song they like, instead they can stream it and add it to a playlist, meaning the companies lose sales they would get otherwise.