Audio Sheep

Audio Sheep
by Sam Frank

Hard to believe it's been a decade since Shawn Fanning's original Napster took the music industry by storm when it popularized P2P (Peer-to-Peer) file sharing. Before Napster hit the mainstream there were only a few ways one could exchange music: either with a CD writer (which was also considered new technology at the time) or by recording the album onto a cassette tape (which was considered crappy technology at the time). Dealing with CDR drives and tape recorders requires a great deal of patience and often ended in frustration. Anybody remember "dusters?" It wasn't until my tech-savvy friend told me about MPEG audio layer III (a.k.a. MP3) files that downloading became my preferred method of music consumption. Now that MP3s are standardized the CD, like vinyl, 8-track, and cassette before it, is slowly being phased out, but losing of this medium really worth it for music fans?

In July of 2007, nations came together via the internet to watch Live Earth, a series of concerts that took place around the globe spreading awareness of global warming. Today's top artists including Madonna, Duran Duran, Black-Eyed Peas, Linkin Park, etc. all performed at random locations throughout the world, but in between their sets were infomercials explaining how people can save energy on a day-to-day basis. One ad suggested that if record companies were to stop making CDs then we could save the gas used by trucks that deliver them to stores. That unfathomable option two years ago has become reality in 2009 with the loss of stores like Virgin, Tower, and HMV. Now people buy CDs at stores that consolidate entertainment products like Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Target, leaving us only one other way to get music...download it.


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