Dust off your vinyl records, we're going back in timeMusic is part of the life of every culture and every generation. Since the beginning of humanity, we have been creating music, and with every technological advancement, we have evolved the way music is heard, created, and distributed. Over the past two decades, I have witnessed a sea change in the music industry from cassette tapes to digital mp3s. What is the cause of this dramatic evolution of music? What are the effects on the industry itself and on consumers like you? Music has taken new forms many times throughout its history. Not just in sound, but also in form. According to Dr. Tom McCort, a Ph.D. and instructor at the University of Texas, the term "album" comes from 78 rpm records that contained less than four minutes of music, leaving room for today's songs. today. . But four minutes for an entire record? They were very limited and needed improvement, and thus the cassette tape was invented. Not only did these little rectangular pieces of plastic have two sides, giving double the space, but the cassette could hold twenty-five to forty-five minutes of music on each side. A big step in the right direction, as the compact disc contained approximately seventy-eight minutes of music. But today we are in the digital age. We can fit thousands and thousands of songs into a shiny little box small enough to fit in your pocket, the iPod. A huge difference from the ancestors of music. (McCort, 1)The big leap from physical to digital music began in 2001, when the music industry faced an unexpected dilemma over how its music was shared. This dilemma was brought by the Napster program. According to Kenneth D. Crews, a professor at Indiana State University School of Law, "Napster is the middle of the paper and shows how easy it is to get your music on Pandora." After verifying that you have the rights to your music and that you have it on iTunes, Amazon or other Internet marketplaces, simply register it, click the link that says "SUBMIT YOUR MUSIC" and upload it. Then you simply wait for an acceptance or rejection email. (Robley, 1) Even artists like Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepson found success thanks to the Internet, and it was even easier for them. ABCNews.com writer Desree Adib says Justin Bieber got his big break on YouTube, thanks to Usher. "...Usher had StarSearch at 13, Justin Bieber had YouTube at 12..." (Adib, 1) And a few years after Usher discovered Bieber, Justin did the same for Carly Rae Jepson. Larry Getlen, writing for the New York Post, wrote: "...if he hadn't washed dishes at his mother's house, we might have one less pop sensation." » (Getlen, 1)