My latest track available for free downloads on SoundCloud and Reverbnation.

Within my lifetime I’ve seen a dramatic change in the creation, distribution and consumption of music. After over sixty years of pre-recorded music being purchased almost exclusively on vinyl, the launch of the Sony Walkman in 1979 changed the game in favor of cassette tapes. Vinyl was considered a ‘vintage’ music format in the 90′s when I was growing up with my collection of heavy metal cassette tapes. Soon afterwards, my cassette tapes were left to expire in a dusty old cabinet while I ripped music to my computer hard drive from these brand spankin’ new shiny circular discs. When CDs were introduced, they definitely caused some ripples in the music industry especially with the convenience in transporting the media and potentially sharing music over this awesome thing called the internet!

But when Apple launched the iPod in 2001, things changed forever. This portable device, able to carry a ton of music on a small lightweight hardware, effectively became a necessity of the 21st century. The introduction of two digital music stores, iTunes and eMusic, dramatically changed how music was distributed. For the first time since 7″ vinyl singles dominated the market up to the early 1960′s, music fans could buy any individual song they wanted for under a dollar. In 2011, just eight years after the launch of iTunes, digital music sales generated more revenue than physical music sales in the US.

Recently internet radio has also picked up, enabling consumers to listen to music on-demand. The listener could now interact with music from the radio, such as selecting the song, starting, stopping, forwarding, rewinding, etc. However, the listener base on this format of music distribution is still in its infancy and is in no way close to competing with the iTunes distribution model. As a musician, I whole-heartedly embrace all music channels and intend to spread my work through the more contemporary methods in the near future.

Keep yourself tuned for the soon-to-come studio version of my latest track: Again and again.