How far do you think developments in technology have changed the way the music industry operates?

There have been many changes in technology in context to music over the years which have shaped the way in which the music industry works. This in turn has also changed the relationship between the audience and the artists themselves.
Examples of developments in music technology include hardware and software of music. Ipod's have changed throughout the years and have meant audiences can listen to music wherever and whenever they want. The Internet has made music much more accessible to consumers. Music industries could reach a wider audience and could distribute music with greater ease from Internet programmes such as Itunes. Consumers pay a small fee to download single tracks or whole albums.
With technologies such as this, music institutions can find out what kind of music is most popular, and find what particular music people are listening to. From this they can target their audience easier and reach out to a certain audience more specifically.
Other Internet sites such as Spotify, We7 and Grooveshark all do a similar things. Audiences can stream music onto their computer and can access the music they like with just a few clicks of a button. With this sort of easy access, audiences believe they can listen to more of their music and institutions can obviously gain a vast number of consumers, which in turn will gain them more money.
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter gives audiences the opportunity to actually interact with their favourite artists, find out updates on new music and be the first to listen to recent songs. Myspace had their own section dedicated to music: MyspaceMusic. Their service meant fans could find new artists or even artists that are not even signed to labels. This type of exposure to consumers makes them easier to find and in the long run means more music is bought from the artist and a larger profit towards the institution.
To conclude, i think changes in technology have shaped the way in which music industries operate as they can target their market with greater ease. They need to think about how their audience can access their artist music and how to gain the most our of that technology. On top of this i think the relationship between the audience and the artists themselves has been changed due to new technologies. Consumers can find out about them, learn about new musical updates and access their music much more easily. Artists can find out what music is popular and what the majority of consumers see in a successful artists. This has made the gap between them much smaller and creates advantages for both sides of the market.