How digital transformation has changed consumer culture

The digital transformation and availability of information on the internet have changed our consciousness. There has been a cultural shift that has made people think that illegally downloading music, movies, photos, the software cannot qualify as theft.

In the early 2000s, we were downloading gigabytes of music almost every day. We didn't call it stealing. We used to say: 'uploading', 'downloading'... whole albums, indeed whole music collections. Sometimes songs leaked onto the internet even before the artist was officially released.

Few people were willing to walk out of a shop with a stolen CD in their pocket. But millions of people 'stole' music online and thought it was normal. The consumer culture had changed - the music industry had been virtually destroyed. Musicians all over the world lost a decent chunk of their income. But consumers did not care much about that.

With the development of the internet, copyright has become virtually unarmed: despite laws prohibiting the illegal distribution of content under a copyright free music license, it is actually quite problematic to hold users to account.

Apple used the cultural shift to create something very popular and profitable. Steve Jobs reasoned that since people were stealing entire music libraries and nobody was buying CDs anymore, so why not sell individual songs legally.

Less than 10 years after Apple rolled out its iTunes Music Store, sales have exceeded 25 billion songs. The very way the world consumes music, books, and entertainment has changed. It is now possible to listen to music legally and quite inexpensively or for free. It is still possible to find illegal mp3 tracks on the internet or software that allows you to download music from Facebook or other streaming services, but most of the time these files are of questionable quality or infected with viruses.

Here are some services that allow you to listen to music legally and with maximum comfort.

Apple Music

For iPhone owners, of course, Apple Music comes first. It's not only available on iOS devices - it's also available on Android. 60 million songs in a wide variety of genres, and an inexpensive monthly subscription. Get a free trial period of as much as three months. The cheapest way is a family subscription, and you don't have to be related: you can become a "family" with a group of friends.

You can upload your songs to the cloud. The service offers many selections by genre and artist, compiled by professional editors. The disadvantages are that the desktop version and the app work imperfectly on non-Apple devices. But it is possible to arrange an impromptu karaoke: listen to the songs, sing along, following the lyrics on the screen.

Google Play Music

The two services from Google, YouTube Music, and Google Play Music can be seen as one. It is expected that YouTube Music will soon be pre-installed on Android phones instead of Music.

Google's audio library is smaller than Apple's: 40 million songs. But the merger with YouTube Music also means a countless number of live performances, remixes, rare covers and other exclusives hidden in the depths of the video service. Like the Apple service, Play Music lets you upload your songs to cloud storage (50,000 songs). You can only subscribe to Google Play Music from your Android device or from your computer on the site. A monthly subscription costs $9 and, like Apple, there is a family subscription (up to 6 people).

Unfortunately, the service doesn't have a database of lyrics. YouTube Music can include so-called lyrics videos, but this is not very convenient and they are not available for every track.

Deezer

One of the most popular music streaming services in the world, and one of the few music streaming services not tied to an ecosystem. Deezer is not backed by a global giant like Apple or Google. It has over 56 million tracks and more than 30,000 radio stations. There's a free subscription with limited features and paid subscription options. Family and individual subscription prices are at the same level as Apple and Google.

Deezer has a fun feature called Flow, which is all your favorite music mixed with fresh recommendations and songs. Specify what you like and what you don't like, and you get an endless stream of music tailored to your tastes.

The service also allows you to view the lyrics of songs.

The streaming service Spotify, Deezer's main competitor, has many fans in Russia. Unfortunately, the official launch of the service has been delayed for more than a year. The launch, scheduled for the end of 2019, did not take place again.

Spotify

I'm sure most of our readers have heard of the music service Spotify. It has a user-friendly interface, a huge selection of songs, and the latest releases. Spotify has only two big disadvantages: fees and a limited number of countries in which you can listen to it.

Spotify is a new music service that incorporates the best features of two projects at once: Spotify and YouTube. Spotify takes its look and feels from Spotify, while YouTube has graciously provided its enormous music catalog.