Something I’ve noticed while I’ve been conducting research for Popular Music Press is the impact the internet has on promoting and supporting live music.

The internet provides a forum for advertising and promoting live music acts, which is an environmentally friendlier way to advertise than putting up posters all over the neighbourhood, and undoubtedly reaches a much larger audience. Harsanyi (200 8) argues that the internet provides a means for job creation and mass creativity. We can see this with the MySpace phenomenon where ‘artists’ such as Lily Allen have started careers. MySpace is only one outlet. There are many others including:

However there are those who feel that the internet is having somewhat dire consequences on the live music experience. In the Sun article, Why we must Close the Net, http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article251007.ece, Sir Elton John claims that the internet is having devastating effects on music, “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other.”

If the footage of shows is available on the internet will people just watch this or is it still about the ‘live experience’? I found this site that you might be interested in checking out: http://www.archive.org/details/etree

What do you think? Do you feel that live music has suffered or gained from the advancement of the internet?