Music in the digital age: downloading, streaming, and digital lending

The ways in which we listen to music, and the places we look to find it, have changed radically in the last thirty years. In 1980, Philips and Sony proposed the Red Book standard for Compact Discs (CDs), with a little help from Beethoven. Although it was not the first storage medium for digital audio, the introduction of the CD signaled that the world of digital music was about to go mainstream. The technology behind communications devices such as telephones, radios, and personal computers continued to evolve, and before long, the foundation for the Internet was firmly in place. This multifaceted and complex "global system of interconnected computer networks" was about to revolutionize the distribution of sound recordings. As Leiner says, "The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location."