Distributing Music Online

It is safe to say that online music downloads are an increasingly important part of the music industry. It seems to have become a more popular way of selling music, especially with the ever increasing use of ipods and mp3 players. Itunes music store alone has sold over 10 billion tracks worldwide and has become one of the most used applications for selling music. 

 The disadvantages of distributing music online, are the increasing number of illegal websites that allow consumers to purchase mp3's for free. The most popular being limewire, however the site has only recently been banned. The quality of the track is also not guarenteed unless purchased through a more trustworthy site such as Itunes.

The advantages are that music is more available to consumers and rather than having the limited choice of buying a single or an album, the consumer can select however many songs they want of a particular artist from a range of albums and singles. Online music distribution has also become known as the 'Indie band survival guide', as the indie genre doesn't usually fall into chart music. Through the distribution of music online there tracks are more available to consumers.