In 1999, professional music production required access to elite studios filled with equipment costing millions of dollars. Recording consoles alone could run close to $750,000, and a full studio buildout could easily reach $5 million. Because of these high costs, only artists with record deals could afford to produce professional-quality music.
Then a small piece of technology changed everything.
The Digidesign Digi 001, released in 1999, allowed musicians to record high-quality music at home using a personal computer for roughly $800. Around the same time, Napster made it possible to download music online for free. These two innovations hit the industry simultaneously: one made music cheap to create, and the other made it free to consume.
The result was dramatic. Over the next decade and a half, the traditional recording industry collapsed. Professional studios closed across the country, and the economics of music production were permanently altered.
Today, many observers believe artificial intelligence may be entering a similar phase.