The dark side of Web 2.0: From self-marketing to self-destruction of music artists

Web 2.0 and social media have triggered radical changes in the very fundament of music business. In times before the Internet era, the music business was characterized by a standardized process including the creation, selection, distribution, and consumption of music. The roles of the involved market players were clear-cut. Yet, in the early days of music business, the market was a highly concentrated market. However, with the evolution of Web 2.0 and its new possibilities for home recording available at relatively low- cost and easy to handle, a myriad of music items have been released on the Web. The main consequences of that development are the following: (1) the overall amount of music items available increased drastically, as there are now tens of millions of music items available at a consumer's fingertip; and (2) the ratio between (professional) high-quality music and low- quality music shifted towards an overall deterioration. This, in turn, has an impact on every market player involved in the music business.