1	Music and the Internet
2	Introduction The Internet has revolutionized how we share and exchange information as a society. Gone are the days when you had to be part of a local community to know what is going on there. Here is a bit of information about a few of the effects of this new medium on the musical community.
3	Musical Education Once relegated to school music programs or private lessons, musical education can now be undertaken individually through any number of web resources; Learn to read music through sites like Data Dragon’s “Introduction to Reading Music” (http://datadragon.com/education/reading/) Access tutorials and exercises on sites like Teoria – Music Theory Web (http://www.teoria.com/index.html) Access educational journals like those available at University of Washington’s site (http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Music/dr/eljnl.html) or University of Puget Sound (http://lv7wv2yn4y.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=LV7WV2YN4Y&N=100&S=SC&C=FIMUSI ) Download tablature at sites such as Classtab.org (http://www.classtab.org/)
4	Identify and tap into YOUR community The Internet is extremely vast. It can be used to look into and access virtually any community out there. Pick a style of music and get searching! Correspond with your favorite musical community through groups (http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?lnk=srgmt&q=punk+rock&hl=en) Find, meet and interact with artists on sites such as MySpace music (http://music.myspace.com ) Check out bands and their music at PureVolume (http://www.purevolume.com/) Find something you like in the “Live Music Archive” (http://www.archive.org/audio/etree.php)
5	Buy your music on-line Digital media has drastically changed the quality of music and it’s medium. The advent of high speed digital transfers have made it easy to access large volumes of information – and that’s what music is, information! Preview your music on-line before you decide to buy. Search and select from huge catalogues on sites such as Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/music), BMG (http://www.bmgmusic.com/) and CD Connection (http://www.cdconnection.com/) and have the music shipped directly to your home or office. Buy individual tracks or entire albums in digital format for loading on your MP3 player or for burning to CD at virtual stores such as Apple’s Itunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) and Napster (http://www.napster.com/)
6	See the show! Give up waiting in line at 10AM on Sunday at Tower records, buy your tickets on-line! Some bands offer links to Ticketweb (http://ticketweb.com/) to purchase tickets for their shows. Major acts continue to use Ticketmaster, but now you can do it on-line! (http://www.ticketmaster.com/)
7	Conclusion There is no doubt the Internet has had an effect on every day life regardless of whether you interact with it regularly as an individual or not. Whole industries are being restructured around this new form of information gathering and sharing and the recording industry is no exception. Music has always been a form of self expression and this medium has made it even more possible to express yourself to a wider audience.