Music and Napster

It completely has changed the way people listen to music by expanding the selections and allowing the consumer to sample artists that they might otherwise never have heard of. .
             There is also another new form of interactive entertainment in the works. It's called IMX, which stands for Interactive Music Exchange. It pairs music-based television, similar to an MTV style program, with a system of trade according to popularity, which is a musical version of the stock exchange. Each artist has a certain number of points that fluctuate depending on their popularity and how many people are buying and selling their stock. For instance, Norah Jones's stock increased by 5.67 the day after she swept the Grammy's. (Considine, 2003) The screen has scrolls information such as artist's numbers and discussions on the bottom, which is a very similar format to the news style of CNN. When contestants sign up, they are given a million dollars to play with. Since it's only virtual money, played only for entertainment, the younger generation are learning about what real stock exchange might be like while still keeping them interested in the game. The software was taken from the Hollywood Stock Exchange game, but the idea of making it interactive is new. This way young people can see what it's really like to go through crests and wanes that emulate the fluctuating of the real exchange. .
             Consumers of MP3's and sites similar to Napster have benefited due to the access to an abundance of music for free. This along with CD burners has allowed people to make there own compilations or cheaply rip CD's that have been borrowed. This wave of an abundance of free music is something that the users of it have become accustomed to and are not willing to give up without a fight. The music industry faced a similar crisis in the 1980's. The introduction of cassette tapes attracted many new consumers to the music industry, but also brought about piracy and home taping and mixing.