Introduction
Digitization is changing almost everything, starting with culture, production, and dissemination. Enlightened cultural policies have profoundly accompanied digitization if participation and collective creativity could be dovetailed. Digital production tools offer an opportunity for music artists to invent new music by differentiating it from their peers. It has also enabled music fans to discover new lyrics that match their tastes. Digitization has brought the creative industry together, and their followers have become almost the same (Bourreau, Moreau & Wikström, 2022). Digitization has brought homogenization because artists can easily invent, and imitating others nowadays is very costly. Digitization is well-known for keeping records and information; thereby, imitating others could land them in problems. The bigger population has been drawn to hit songs and trending artists on the consumer side, too, thereby reducing diversity. The paper’s objective is to provide a shred of evidence on the impact of digitization on music diversity.
The impact of digitization
The diversity of content in the market depends on two dimensions: variety which elaborates on the increase of products in the market, and balance, which illustrates the decrease of the same. The digitization of music has profoundly affected diversity through the supply and demand side. For instance, the music that people listen to can be less diverse because artists differ in creation in this digital era (Bourreau, Moreau & Wikström, 2022). Diversity has also been affected because consumers choose music that is more or less what their peers choose. People across the country have been affected by music digitization and are interested in listening to the trending hits. More or less, people are becoming homogenous because they are influenced by what they see on social media and not by culture anymore.
Digitization has lowered the cost of inventing new music and the cost incurred in bringing new content to the market. Home studios and other digital tools have majorly influenced this aspect. The distribution cost has also been reduced to zero with new digital apps such as iTunes and Spotify (Bourreau, Moreau & Wikström, 2022). Artists have also been using social media to promote their music. Through cost reduction, there is less differentiated music, and artists have begun imitating others when it comes to production. This aspect has led to a homogenous culture (Council of Europe 2022). Both artists and consumers have almost the same because they are influenced by online activities and the social media tools that distribute the content. Now that nearly everyone uses the internet, artists look for beguiling content that will attract consumers across the world. This tool has brought people together; in some instances, they appear to have forgotten cultural differences.
The research shows that the diversity of music consumed by people could be affected by digitization for reasons that concern the demand side. Consumers make more or less the same choices considering the supply of music through digitization. Evidently, if consumers have an extensive catalog of content, they will select music that suits their preference and possibly a niche that belongs to the list of distribution sales (Bourreau, Moreau & Wikström, 2022). Therefore, this study shows that consumers will most likely go for the content that is top on the distribution list. The sales volume and views will trigger their choice, and the majority of them will find themselves listening to almost the same music. In addition, digitization is believed to lower search costs for consumers. Consumers can easily read the reviews of the new music in the market and sample new songs (Council of Europe 2022). Therefore, the theoretical literature shows that reducing search costs allows consumers to make informed choices and select content that suits their tastes.
The study shows that through digitization, consumers can choose what they want to listen to or buy online. In the pre-digital era, consumers could only listen to music played on radios or TVs. However, with technology advancing, consumers can search for whatever content they want online with limited charges (Bourreau, Moreau & Wikström, 2022). This has been described as the best era because they can choose music that perfectly suits them. Thus, it is expected that the plethora of choices found online could reduce biodiversity. On the other hand, the provision of information about the popularity of titles online leads to increased download concentration. However, ranking can vary from one content to another. At this point, the best seller can generate a market expansion that may lure more listeners to the new music. All these have been attributed to decreased worldwide music diversity through this digital era.
Conclusion
Digital music platforms use recommendation systems that provide their users with the best music titles. There are two types of recommendation systems. The collaborative-based filtering system allows consumers to understand how best people liked the product. Content-based filtering system recommends products similar to the ones liked by the consumer. All these recommendations help consumers discover new music or upcoming artists. Based on these assertions, it is safe to say that digital tools have brought both artists and consumers close than before. Through media and recommendation tools, consumers are capable of noticing the trending hits. At the same time, they can download and listen at their convenience time. Recommendations have also increased the number of sales concentration, thus reducing diversity. Music digitization has reduced diversity by a significant margin, and online tools have brought the world close and together. The reduced diversity through music digitization has contributed to homogenous culture.
References
Bourreau, M., Moreau, F., & Wikström, P. (2022). Does digitization lead to the homogenization of cultural content?. Economic Inquiry, 60(1), 427-453.
Council of Europe (2022). Understanding the Impact of Digitisation on Culture. https://www.coe.int/en/web/culture-and-heritage/culture-and-digitisation
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