This article discusses music creation in the 21st century. Specifically, it aims to analyze how Web distribution platforms affect the music business by an artist's point of view. After literature research on Austrian Economics, the reconfigurations of the music business due to Web distribution platforms and current intellectual property models (copyleft and copyright), one asks: which model offers the most advantages to artists? In which aspects are there benefits? In order to answer these questions, two objects were chosen for comparative study: the sites Jamendo and iTunes. One sees none of the reviewed models beats the traditional model when it comes to financial gains, despite the lesser amount of middlemen involved. However, advantages are found when it comes to creativity-related issues.
Austrian Economics; Music business; Intellectual property; iTunes; Jamendo