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MUSIC AND THE MASS MEDIA IN A DIGITAL AGE

By
Dr. Sunday N. Nnamani

08063960225, 08091144141
sundaynnamani2010@yahoo.com

Dept Of Music, Faculty Of Humanities,
Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-alike Ikwo, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State

&
Rev. Ikechi Nwagu

08061111940. Ikechi001@gmail.com
Dept of Music, Faculty of Humanities,

Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-alike Ikwo,  Abakaliki, Ebonyi State

Abstract
he pace at which technology is evolving is ever increasing – and people are eager to embrace Tit. The digital age has a wide scope. One may have heard of buzz and words like artificial 
intelligence (AI), automation, big data, insure tech, Internet Of Things (IOT) and cloud. 

These are some of the streams that come under the digital age. Life in the digital age is truly 
information driven as data to access the internet is becoming more valuable than other things, hence 
an average person needs to access social media almost on a daily basis. For the last decade, 
phenomenal technological advances in digital technologies has enabled the internet to become an 
efficient medium for accessing music both by streaming or direct downloading, as well as by online 
acquisition of CDs and cassettes(Graham et al, 2002). Social media platforms such as Whatsapp, 
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, etc have emerged as agents of information 
dissemination around the globe. Careful observation shows that music and mass media in the digital 
age has left the corridors of the traditional owners to the doorstep of the consumers.
Key words: Internet, Facebook, Social Media, Streaming, Download

Introduction
Over the years, music and mass media has continued to play related and complimentary roles in the 
society. Both have been regarded as great medium of socialization, education, communication, 
good governance, character formation, information and religious experience. Music and the mass 
media right from origin, has been growing side by side with technology, and such development had 
led to the constant improvement of both on a daily basis. The demands of the digital age have left 
both music and mass media with the option of meeting up with the current trend.

Therefore, in trying to meet up with the demands of the digital age, music and mass media have 
continued to improve their standards in all ramifications. They do this in order to enhance 
productivity because the relevance of music and mass media in the society is very high and cannot 
be over-estimated. Therefore, the use of the internet and social media platforms in the production, 
distribution and consumption of music is highly necessary.

Definition Of Concepts
Music: As a creative and performing art, the definition of music may vary from one social and 
cultural context to another. According to Idolor (2002), music is derived from the Greek word 
“Musicke” which originally meant the art of technique of all cultural endeavours. Jagger in Idolor 

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(2002) also remarked that “humanity denotes mankind and the characteristics that evolve in the 
interaction of human beings: music is generally defined as an organised sound, its concept varies 
from one society to another hence it is necessary to understand what sounds and what kind of 
behavior different societies regard as musical.

Sociologically, the concept of music is by the society and it is concerned with the organized ways in 
which people behave towards one another when they listen, produce, and reproduce those sounds 
which they perceive as music. Ubani (2009) expressed that music is capable of transforming the 
society in a most logical, convenient and appropriate tool for disseminating and communicating 
information to the masses that assures retention and serves as a reminder.
Also, music may be defined as “a sacred art”. This is so because we use music in holy places of 
worship – churches, mosques, shrines and temples. Also, music may be seen as “A succession of 
organized sounds which the ear may interpret as pleasant or pleasing or entertaining or enjoyable” 
(Anuonye, 2017).
Also, Okpala in Iwu and Anuonye (2009) posited that:

Music is a social process by which human beings relate to one another through transmission 
of information, ideas, emotions, thoughts, norms, concepts and feelings among themselves. 
Music is the centre place of life which gives human life existence worth its value. Being the 
heart of life, music functions like the centre of life in man… It is music that defines an 
individual group, people and society in general. It is present in man (from cradle to the grave) 
being omnipresent and ubiquitous. It permeates all human conditions.

This means that its only through music (as a process of socialization) that human beings relate to 
themselves and interact with one another, share from one another's problems and enjoyments and 
organize their environment to make it conducive to living.

Oguoma (2009) opines that music is one language that is universal. Poets interpret the world in 
verbal configuration, painters depict the world in colour, line and texture while music communicates 
in varying the vast array of human experiences.
Music is made of sounds, vibrations and silent moments, and it doesn't always have to be pleasant or 
pretty. It can be used to convey a whole range of experiences, environments and emotions. 
( ).https://study.com

Mass Media
Ubani (2009) defined mass media as “those contrivances artistically employed by communicators to 
bring about inter-personal relationships among people and between groups and persons on local, 
nations and international levels”. Mass media refers to the technologies used as channels for a small 
group of people to communicate with a larger number of people. The concept was first addressed 
during the progressive era of the 1920s, as a response to new opportunities for elites to reach large 
audiences via the mass media of the time: newspapers, radio, and film. Actually, the three forms of 
traditional mass media today are still the same: print (newspapers, books, magazines), broadcast 
(television, radio), and cinema (movies and documentaries).

But in the 1920s, mass media referred not just to the number of people such communication could 
reach but rather to the uniform consumption, and anonymity of the audiences. Uniformity and 
anonymity are characters which no longer fit the way people seek out what to consume, and 
manipulate information into their daily lives. Those new media are referred to as “alternative media” 
or “mass self-communication”.

The two best known types are commercial advertising and political campaigns. Due to technological 

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development and advancement, the traditional mass media comprising the print, broadcast and 
cinema are facing numerous challenges. However, new forms are being created and added day by 
day to fit into the digital age. The internet and social media have altered the nature of mass media 
thereby creating consumers who control, produce and even create media of their own, and by so 
doing, they can easily track consumer responses without much stress. Digital age arrives with a set 
of big communication challenges for traditional mainstream media: new relations with audiences 
(interactivity), new languages (multimedia) and a new grammar (hypertext).

But this media revolution not only changes the communication landscape for the usual players, most 
importantly, it opens the mass communication system to a wide range of new players.
As far as enterprises, institutions, administrations, organizations, groups, families and individuals 
start their own online presence, they become “media” by their own, they also become “sources” for 
traditional media and in many cases, they produce strong “media criticism”.

Digital Age
The digital age, also referred to as the information age, saw the prevalent use of the internet probably 
shifting from traditional industry to an economy based on information and communication 
technologies. Around the 1980s with the subsequent introduction of personal computers, 
individuals were provided with the ability to transfer information freely and quickly through the 
internet. It is very difficult to discuss the digital age without mentioning the information and 
communication technology (ICT).

Abdullahi, H. (2013) argues that ICT definition depends on the angle the individual looks at it. 
According to him, information and communication technology comprises the method and technical 
means of capturing, storing, processing, retrieving and transmitting both data and information 
borne by the data. Information and communication technology is an interdisciplinary science 
primarily concerned with the collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and 
dissemination of information. Furthermore, he informs that the advent of ICT especially in these 
modern times has brought effective and efficient information generation, utilization and 
dissimilation, storage and retrieval. ICT include among others, television, radio broadcasting, audio 
cassettes and audio cassettes recorders, video cassettes and video cassettes recorders, computers, 
satellite systems, multimedia approaches, audiovisual utilization, as well as the various services and 
applications associated with them. These include but not limited to video conferencing and 
multimedia utilization.

The pace at which technology is evolving is ever increasing and people are eager to embrace it. The 
digital age has a wide scope too. It's likely that you have heard of buzz words like “artificial 
intelligence (AI), automation, big data, Insure Tech, Internet of Things (IOT) and “cloud”. These are 
just some of the streams that come under the digital umbrella.

According to Abiodum (2017), the emergence of internet and digital technologies is a global 
experience that touches every industry. Increasingly, internet-based technologies and its 
applications are progressively penetrating all areas of business, individual and social facet of 
everyday life. For every sector, digitalization changes the approach services and products are made, 
marketed, sold, distributed and how organizations manage competitions. Furthermore, he stated 
thus “over the last decade, phenomenal technologies advances in digital technologies has enabled 
the internet to become an efficient medium for accessing music – both by streaming or downloading 
it directly, and by acquisition of CDs and cassettes from online retailers (Graham et al, 2002). The 
Nigerian music industry has experienced many technological innovations ranging from cassette 

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recordings, audio CDs recordings, massive video recordings and digital music. The industry is 
gradually transiting from over reliance on record companies to a situation where artists can have 
direct contact with the consumers to reduce bottlenecks and prices in the value chain of their music as 
well as maximizing profits. This is made possible as a result of the advent of the internet as an 
efficient medium for communication and marketing of music. Nevertheless, the purpose of this 
work, music and the mass media in a digital age shall be discussed with regards to its production, 
distribution and consumption.

Production
The digital age has continued to witness serious and constant shift from the traditional way of doing 
things to computerized form. One of the structures of the traditional music industry structure is music 
and song creation. Musicians, lyricists, composers and recording artists with creativity and talents 
create music massively. Olugbenga in Margaret (2017) recorded the progress of recording studios in 
Nigeria as follows:

Historical Development:
He records that;

We can identify specific periods in the history of music recording in Nigeria since its 
inception at the turn of the twentieth century from 1900 which involved mano analogue 
recording technique. It consisted of holding one or two microphones in the middle of a group 
of musicians after which it is then transcribed into a wax cylinder.
Another epoch, witnessed the multi-national recording companies monopolizing the entire 

music industry in Nigeria and the recording technique was the multi-track stereo analogue 
recordings. Finally, the digital age witnessed a total withdrawal of the multi-national recording 
companies, the emergence and proliferation of digital home studios, using multi-track analogue and 
the digital state of the arts recording technology.

Technology has always been the bedrock of the music industry, and the digital technology has 
transformed the music industry not only in the way music is consumed but also fundamentally in the 
way music is recorded and performed. Today, low-cost high-quality recording, processing and 
mixing solutions have led to affordable studio time being available all over the nation. Studios are no 
longer the expensive and hallowed domain of a small and exclusive clientele of signed artists. Artists 
of all colours and hue are using various music websites to build fan base and to sell their music to the 
public.

Egonu (2009) opines that the use of computer in composition has actually improved the quality of the 
music we hear today as noted by Gordon Zaft (1996). 
He emphasized that;

Music composition has gone a long way into perfection with the advent of computer 
technology. Today, people with little or no knowledge of music can come up with creative 
musical ideas. Professional composers can have a variety of music played in little or no time 
with the aid of computer software thus enabling them listen to what their music sounds like 
without having to organize and orchestrate or been performed by a choir. Scores/music sheets 
are even mass produced with neater and better presentations without the limitation of time 
and space.

A number of artists and composers have during recent years implemented the context-focused model 
in the creative production of their musical works. Rather than only making polished recordings for 

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the audience to experience and enjoy, they created services and practices that involve the audience in 
the creative process and allow the fans to do things with music; that is to say, encouraging the fans to 
upload sounds, images and videos of production. Composers and song writers create songs, lyrics 
and arrangements that are performed live on stage, recorded and distributed to consumers or licensed 
for some other kind of use, for instance sheet music as background music for other media 
(advertising, television, radio, etc).

Furthermore, the role of media editors have been reduced also by worldwide publishing without 
editors but with a close peer review daily process and in most cases open to comments from readers in 
the nature of social web publishing. As a result of that, the agenda of relevant current affairs goes 
beyond the established media and now is shared with a wide variety of new sources most of them not 
media, including social web portals, mailing lists, e-bulletins, search engines, new groups, forum and 
weblogs with their respective feeds when available. ( )https://www.ecuaderno.com/culturasdigitales

Distribution
This could also be referred to as a product of marketing which may include branding, information, 
distribution/dissemination and community building. Major channels for branding and information 
dissemination are professional promoters, disk jockeys, DJs/clubs, and media houses such as the 
television and radio stations. These channels publicize information about new releases and provide 
samples of music to the fans and consumers. Music normally is stored in portable medium such as 
CDs and audio cassettes, for sale and preservation. The channels also help to develop communities of 
music fans with similar tastes.

According to Jayeola and Nwonye (2017), the Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD – ROM) 
stores music data such as audio, video, audio – visual and literary documentation on every aspect of 
music. Information contained in the CD-ROM, which could be on any culture, is widely distributed 
for global consumption and can be decoded on the screen of the computer by even people from other 
world cultures. Through the radio, television and the internet, these products are advertized, 
promoted and marketed for mass orientation and global patronage. Thus producing, reproducing and 
distribution of music is rapidly becoming cheaper, making it possible for many small and 
independent record companies to enter the market.

In a digital age, challenges like paper space for the printing of media materials and short time for 
broadcast media ceased to be the limit to content and now the time of the user in the new scarce 
resource. The vision of musicians and their fans and music lovers coming together without any 
limitations of time and space without any interference from meddling record companies is being 
realized virtually on the internet. Quoting Egonu (2009), he said, we know that “music for the 
people” is one thing that will without doubt continue to grow. Music for all purposes, radio, public 
shows, advertisements, relaxation, ceremonial, TV, etc, is composed easily without stress and just in 
time.

Presently, there is different musical software available in the market which can aid in composition, 
sound synthesis, song arrangement, harmonization, and even performance of music piece itself. 

thEgonu stressed further that in April 27 , 1996, the First Virtual Concert Hall was launched. It 
consisted of the musicians of Nova orchestra who gathered at the School of Music and Dance's Hall 
at one end and dancers of the School at Gittings Dance Theatre at the other end of the campus. The 
musicians of Orchestra Nova performed two pieces on their Roland A-30 MIDI keyboard 

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controllers; audio and video from Crowder Hall were fed lives via network to Gittings Dance Hall 
where the dancers performed to the live music. Crowds in both halls could see and hear the entire 
performance on large LCD screens hanging from the ceilings.

Consumption
Nowadays, most musical artists and producers go beyond the traditional format of the song and 
create mobile applications that allow the users to play with music in different ways. According to 
Blow (2009), the merger of audio technologies with computer technologies converted music into an 
information product. Digital technologies such as mp3 have become the standard for digital music 
format. Mp3 is a widely accepted format for music distribution over the internet and being an open 
standard (not a patented property of a company) and well received by many audio software 
developers. However, mp3 does not have a provision for a digital signature to identify or stop illegal 
music download and distribution worldwide which has allowed music consumers to freely 
download and distribute both legal and pirated music over the internet.

Music consumption in a digital age has become very cheap and affordable that music lovers can 
enjoy their desired music tract from the comfort of their homes provided there is an internet 
connection. Among the three kinds of music fans, the vast majority of listeners are those who copy 
music illegally because it is more convenient than buying the originals. The sales of CDs have 
continued to fall and paid-for downloads from services like Apple's iTunes have fallen short too 
where legal services offering free, unlimited streaming of music rather than downloads, are 
proliferating. The growth and development of technology in the digital age has also affected the 
mass media in the sense that information is now distributed in many directions and methods, and 
audiences can vary from one person to many thousands. Mass self-communication can potentially 
reach a global audience but it is self generated in content, self-directed in its mission and typically 
focuses on self-related information. Sociologist Alvin Toffler created the now-obsolete term of 
“prosumers” to describe users who are almost simultaneously consumers and producers – for 
example, reading and commenting on online content, or reading and replying to twitter post.  

Interactions also now cross-media stream such as “social TV, where people use hash tags while 
watching a sports game or a television program in order to simultaneously read and converse with 
hundreds of other viewers on social media. The communication process in the actual scenario is user 
centered: users have the control to choose, to decide, to search, to define and configure, to subscribe 
or to unsubscribe,  to comment and most importantly,  to write,  talk and 
film.”( ).https://www.ecuaderno.com/culturadigitales

Conclusion
The digital age has not only affected music and the mass media but other aspects of human 
endeavour. Social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, telegram, 
etc. are now agents of information dissemination that can reach anywhere internationally within the 
shortest possible times. Music and mass media in the digital age has left the corridors of the so-called 
traditional owners to the door step of consumers giving the consumers rights of making decisions of 
their own without reliance on any individual or group.

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REFERENCES

Abdullahi, H. (2013). The Role of ICT in Teaching Science Education in Schools  (https:www.m.c 
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Abiodum, O. A. (2017). Impact of the Internet and digital technologies on Nigeria Music

Industry. Musical Horizons in Africa (Essay and Perspectives) A - Festschrift in honour of 
Daniel Chikpezie Christian Agu.

Anuonye, C. C. (2017). Integrating Information and Communication Technology in Teaching
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Blow, C. M. (2009) Swan Songs,The New York Times ( ).www.nytimes.com/2009
Egonu, J. C. (2009). Computers and Music Composition. Alvan Journal of Music and

 Humanities vol I No III.
Graham G., Buress A., Hadakar, G (2002). The Impact of the interest on the Structure of

thComputer Music on the Supply-chain, being a paper presented at the 12  Biennial 
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Gordon, Z. (1996) in Egonu, J. C. (2009) Computers and Music Composition. Alvan Journal of
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Idolor, E. (2002). Music to the Contemporary African. Music in Africa: Facts and Illusions:
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Jayeola, F. D. and Nwonye GRI (2017). Globalizing Nigeria Music: Emerging Issues: Journal of 
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Margret, A. F. (2017). The Impact of Technology on Musical Recording Studio in Nigeria.

Musical Horizons in Africa (Essay and Perspective). A Festschrift in honour of Daniel 
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Oguoma, P. (2009). Music as a Cultural Melting Pot: The Nigerian Experience in C. F. Uboh &
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Okpala, H. N. (2009). Song texts – a tool for global reconciliation. ANSU Journal of Arts and
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INTERNET SOURCES
1. https://study.com
2. https://www.ecuaderno.com/culturasdigitales

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