democratisation of music

Music production by record companies has been adversely affected by the Internet: bands and artists no longer need a record deal to promote their music. The Internet has enabled free publicity and this extends to record production itself. With the development of technology, recording has become democratised: paying a lot of money to a professional recording studio is no longer necessary, many bands/artists use small devices to create their own 'studio' and, on a smaller scale, some computers and mobile phones now include recording software. Once the desired effects have been made, a band can promote themselves using their websites, generally on MySpace, and offer free downloads or snippets as a way to promote themselves. The cost of advertising has been significantly subsidised by the fact that artists can promote their stuff for free. It solves financial problems for the band and can even allow bands to set up their own record distribution network. An example of this is the band Enter Shikari, who set up their own indepandant "record label" called Ambush Reality, which is co-owned by the band members themselves, and their friends.