Musicians The topic of interest is the relationship that musicians have with the Internet. The Internet era has brought significant challenge for artists, especially pertaining to piracy, but there are also opportunities. The Internet, therefore, has significantly changed the media and marketing landscape for artists.

Morris (2010) notes that music has largely shifted from physical commodity, being sold on CDs (and vinyl and cassettes before that) to a digital commodity. This has transformed the marketing and distribution landscape for artists and record labels, and has transformed how the public consumes music. This reality raises a number of questions. Much of the prior academic work in this field, such as Patrik Wikstrom's The Music Industry and works built on that (such as Morris, 2014), focus on the industry's relationship with technology, and perhaps pay insufficient attention to the consumer side. So there is both an interesting body of existing literature and opportunities to build a new body of literature by engaging the consumers of music on their perspective of the transformation that the industry has undergone in the Internet era and moving towards the post-Internet era.

Thesis Statement

The music industry in the digital era is highly complex and continuously evolving.

The literature is strong in discussing the subject from an industry perspective, and this can be augmented by studies that focus on either artists, or consumers, or both.
Three research questions that can be examined are:

In what ways has the music industry changed in the digital era?

What are some of the ways that artists are using the Internet to market their works and increase their revenue?

How does the 18- to 25-year-old demographic purchase, consume and use music?

I will use two different surveys, to answer the second and third questions. These surveys will not be randomized, but will be targeted at their specific groups. The surveys will focus on the subject at hand. For example, consumers might be asked "what percentage of the music you listen to has been paid for?," "do you torrent music?," "do you stream music," "do you write about/rate music online?" And other questions pertaining to consumption habits. Artists might be asked "what percentage of your revenues come from music sales? Concerts? Merchandise?" The surveys will be conducted online or by…