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In the modern era, musicians and composers have an opportunity to claim their status as artists equal and in many cases superior to other art forms and disciplines.
Before recording, there really wasn't a way for composers and musicians to package and sell their compositions other than through performance or notation.
In terms of performance, apprentices would learn from master musicians and the tradition would pass along from master to apprentice through the centuries. Throughout this process performance after painstaking study and practice was at the heart of the discipline.
Eventually, a notation system evolved which allowed composers to write down their ideas in order to preserve them, work them out on paper, and to communicate these ideas from person to person. Notation actually made music portable although a music score was not the end product, but rather a means of communicating the end product which was the music itself translated by musicians and performed live.
Unfortunately, the weakness in the notation system lay in the interpretation which may or may not have been an accurate portrayal of the composer's thought and direction. The system wasn't perfect but it was a step in the right direction to where we are today.
As you can see, performance and portability were two essential steps that needed to be taken before we could arrive anywhere close to the final step of communicating the artist's ideas exactly as they intended. It's in this final step where music crosses over from a communal activity and into a medium similar to painting, sculpture, photography, and other crafts.
Notice how almost every other art form and craft produces a physical product that can be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. Whereas in the past, music lacked the ability to produce a physical product and therefore could not be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. But this has all changed today.
Now, music can produce a physical product and like other art forms can be bought, sold and owned. But interestingly, the same technology that gave birth to the music recording industry is also destroying that industry and making more difficult for musicians and composers to maintain control over their work.
Bootlegged music and other types of illegal duplication are pushing the price of the music experience so far down towards zero ($0) that each composer, musician, songwriter, and band have to consider themselves a brand in order to promote and market themselves according to a business model of their own choosing.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing only because the artists can now decide how they want to package and sell their music. Selling digital downloads is just one type of package, other forms include music DVD's, box sets with the artist's autograph and photos, touring, creating T-shirts and other paraphernalia as well as composing for T.V., film, and video games. Each of these packages is made up of products, each with their own price model, mark ups, and profit potential.
Music is art and now has the potential to be sold by artists directly to buyers, but now it's up to the artist to determine whether or not they'll only sell music or if they'll also package their music with other products. Each artist has to determine what kind of music business they're going to run and try different approaches to find out what works, what doesn't work, and how much of a living they can make doing it.
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