The effect of the economy on the music industry by composer Johnny Hachem

The Lebanese-Ukrainian and world renowned composer and pianist Johnny Hachem has spoken to us about the effects of the economy on the music industry.

The economy is effecting the music industry in many ways. 

You may be thinking how a whole industry can relate to economics, but they have a lot more in common than you think! Economics is the production, and consumption of goods and services.

Well, the music industry provides production type of music. These are the ones we are able to hear on the radio or on our smartphone devices. The music industry provides us with goods (the good quality of music), and services (concerts). This is how they relate to one another and may not be different at all.

Since the economy provides the people with goods and services, they also provide them with the availability of streaming music online. Nowadays, people can convert any song to an .mp3 file and save it on their smartphones.

This has caused a major decline in sales for the music industry. People used to buy CDs to listen to them. Now all they have to do is stream online and they will have it on repeat. This is a huge economic factor effecting the music industry, especially since there are more companies rising that provide high quality downloads to users.

These music companies are, but not limited to Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and Pandora, which have taken off due to their provided music subscription plans. However, some artists believe music is an art and should be paid for, which means that the music industry may slowly gain their sales back. On the other hand, the economy is having a more positive impact on the music industry rather than vise-versa.

When a concert occurs, people unite in one venue to watch the show. This allows citizens to feel close to one another and safer knowing there are a lot of people around them who share the same values as they do.

The music industry effects the economy by giving job opportunities to people, whether wanting to be a music producer or a musician. This fuels citizens into excelling their careers, as well as artist growth within the city itself.

At the end, music is an art. It is rising to become something more powerful than it is already.