PRS for Music takes a look back at a digital decade which proved revolutionary for the music industry. Lifestyle shifting technological advances, the ubiquity of the internet, mobile phone technology and the development of social media all fundamentally changed the way people make and listen to music.
2000 January AOL buys Time Warner for $126b. July Launch of Friends Reunited website
2001 January Launch of Wikipedia October Apple launches the iPod in the US. December 3G mobile phone network UK launch.
2002 October Freeview – UK launch.
2003 April iTunes Music Store US launch. June DVD rentals overtake VHS rentals. August MySpace launch.
2004 January First HDTV broadcast in Europe. June Digital Download chart created. December Download sales overtake physical.
2005 April UK chart includes downloads. July NewsCorp buys MySpace. November Official launch of YouTube.
2006 March Major retailers stop selling VHS. July Top of the Pops is axed by the BBC. July Twitter launches. September Facebook launches. November Google buys YouTube for $1.65b.
2007 March UK launch of Playstation 3 October Radiohead offer In Rainbows as a digital downloads for customers to pay what they want. December BBC iPlayer launches publicly.
2008 March AOL buys Bebo for $850m October Spotify launches. November UK digital switchover begins. December Zavvi goes into administration.
2009 March Lady Gaga’s Poker Face becomes the most downloaded song in UK history. October The UK’s last piano factory closes. December AOL and Time Warner split after almost ten years as one company.
PRS for Music exists to help businesses and community groups get access to some of the world’s best loved music, while making sure that songwriters, composers and publishers are rightfully rewarded whenever their musical works are played, performed or reproduced. PRS for Music provides the permissions needed to use music for any product or space, from a TV programme or YouTube video, to the workplace radio and every possibility in between. Through effective, fair and transparent licensing we ensure that creators can keep on creating by delivering vital income to all our 60,000 membership. PRS for Music is proud to keep one of the UK’s most vibrant creative industries working.
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