FFWD Weekly
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Technology by Tom Babin The whole cyber-world, or at least the music geeks within it, have been holding their breath in anticipation of the Napster decision for the past few months. But even if the file-swapping giant is shut down, the question still remains: has the Internet had any real affect on music? The music industry has obviously been affected by the Internet, insomuch as its panties have been twisted into a knot, but has the Internet affected the music itself? Streaming radio stations were the earliest music-related breakthrough to hit Internet critical mass. They remain limited by technology – even today there's nothing as frustrating as having the climax to a 20-minute live crescendo interrupted by Net congestion – but their nascency was important enough that music moulded around it. Hip-hop and electronic music were the quickest to take to streaming radio, probably because it was (and is) so difficult to get boundary-bending urban music played anywhere else. DJs could stretch their sets out for hours, and incorporate literally anything without the limits that even college or independent radio faced. In the way club culture spawned dance music, to a lesser extent streaming Web broadcasts helped revive DJ culture. San Francisco's betalounge.com is still legendary in Web radio circles for its broadcast of a set by Roni Size at the peak of the furor surrounding his New Forms album, and its word-of-mouth prominence helped spawn a new genre. A bigger impact on music was the popularization of the mp3, and that change is still occurring. Like Led Zeppelin, Web radio may have made the 60-minute chunk of music more acceptable as a product and a single piece of work (no matter how bloated), but mp3s are threatening to become the disco of the new millennium – destroying the album in favour of the single. Essentially, mp3s are single songs, and so far, that is how they are traded, sold and marketed. Overwhelmingly, Napster trades in the three-minute pop fix, as does mp3.com and any record company dishing out legal samples of its artists. It only takes seconds to download a single song, but trying to organize a complete album from start to finish is often futile. It can be done – and whole albums can be found, even on Napster – but the mp3 isn't about albums. Already, that characteristic is shaping music. Web sites concentrating on legitimate mp3 distribution are looking for singles. Even Public Enemy-cum-Internet guru Chuck D has said his site is signing songs, not bands, when he chooses mp3 selections for his ever-growing world of domains, including rapstation.com. Mp3.com gives bands and musicians a token opportunity to sell themselves, but their focus is similarly on individual songs. What does this mean for music? So far, not much, but it isn't a stretch to assume that as mp3s continue to grow, so will the importance of the single. Pop charts are already dominated by them, and if the prominence of the album falls with the rise of the mp3, the Internet has the ability to do wonders for the sales of the next power pop compilation. That may all change, however, as technology improves. Audio technology will undoubtedly evolve to the point where albums can be digitized and transferred online easily, but the influence of the mp3 is already affecting the music being put out by musicians trying to break out via the Internet. Of course, just when everyone thought the Village People had destroyed the album as an artistic statement, Bruce Springsteen stomped them all into near oblivion. Maybe the same thing will happen again. Perhaps a change will come from an unlikely source, or perhaps the single will evolve into more than ear-candy. Maybe even The Boss has another rescue up his sleeve. But then again, maybe we don't want his help this time around.

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