Free music is now available through many legal sources, from streaming services to online radio stations, making it largely unnecessary to purchase an album or even a single song. As sales figures continue to drop, some musicians, both high-profile and relatively unknown, have even quit trying to sell their music altogether, choosing instead to release new material for free online. Perhaps this trend is a matter of simple economics: cheap is good, but free is better. But it is worth considering whether our apparent unwillingness to spend money on music is an indication that its value in our lives is changing.
Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about the changing value of music in our lives.
Perspective One: Digital technologies and the Internet have changed our relationship with music. It is so plentiful and readily available now that all value has been diluted.
Perspective Two: Music competes for our attention with many other kinds of inexpensive entertainment these days. We still value it, but we also have a lot of other ways to spend our money.
Perspective Three: With so many free sources, people are listening to more music and discovering more new musicians than ever before. Wide availability has only increased our appreciation of music.
ESSAY TASK
****Write a unified, coherent essay about whether the vale of music in our lives is changing. In your essay, be sure to: (3 paragraphs or more)
• clearly state your own perspective on the issue and analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective
• develop and support your ideas with reasoning and examples
• organize your ideas clearly and logically
• communicate your ideas effectively in standard written English
Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of those given, in partial agreement, or completely different.
