Popularity of music is on the rise, but students in Bowling Green, Ohio, are choosing to download it illegally instead of purchasing it.

“I don’t download music through iTunes. I don’t see why anyone would. I use YouTube, or get music from other friends for free,” said Lance Dauch, an education major, from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

Music is now available through programs such as iTunes and also available free on sites such as YouTube, Spotify and Pandora. According to an article in the Rolling Stone, the fractions of cents that artists collect from streaming sites make it next to impossible to track how much they make.

According to the Rolling Stone, top artists receive approximately $1 for every 1,000 plays on YouTube and on Internet radio, artists get 25 percent of the company’s annual revenue, which comes out to be around $0.001 per stream of song.

Many music fans felt that sites such as YouTube and Pandora are actually helping musicians.

“It’s much easier for artists to gain fans these days with all of the online music sites,” said Jordan Deck, a medical technology major, from Toledo, Ohio. “Before, it was all word of mouth, and sometimes great bands were never even discovered.”

According to the Rolling Stone, compact-discs were once the main way of selling music, but have been faded out because of online downloads.

Several students on campus are happy with the direction music is going.

“CD’s just can’t compete with online downloads,” said Ariana Panagiota, a fashion major, from Pittsburgh. “It’s so much easier to carry around an iPod with thousands of songs instead of carrying around a CD with only 15 songs on it.”

Music is continuously evolving, and only time can tell what is in store for music fans in the future. Some students believe that illegal downloading is only a phase.

“I think eventually the government will step in and create a system to go after illegal downloading more than they do now,” said Josh Kelley, a sport management major, from Lima, Ohio. “The illegal downloading has got to come to an end. Musicians are getting cheated out of millions of dollars. It isn’t fair to anyone involved with the creation of music.”

Last night, Twenty-One Pilots, a band that hasn’t even officially released their debut album from their first record company, sold out the 2,200 capacity LC Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus natives, Tyler Joesph and Josh Dun, have become widely popular online through the use of social media and letting the fans do the marketing for them. Both Joesph and Dun stay very active on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with their YouTube videos receiving hundreds of thousands of clicks. They have begun to let fans do their marketing, not wanting to over promote themselves. The band has only sparingly played shows in their hometown of Columbus, choosing to play in clubs outside the state’s capital to make their Central Ohio fan base larger.

The band has used social media as a major marketing tool in their rise from playing empty basements to sold out night clubs. The duo hired a videographer to tour with them and stream the shows online, as well as uploading content all over the web for fans to gain access to. The videographer even joins them on stage to get close ups of the band’s acrobatic piano jumps and crowd diving. The duo has even went one step further and integrated social media into the band’s live performances. An official hashtag is set up for each show and fans are encouraged to tweet about the performance as tweets are scrolled across the video boards on stage.

Twenty One Pilots has shown that music marketing and promoting has changed drastically in recent years. No more are the days of releasing an album and promoting it only through constant touring. Now are the days that bands will use content from live shows and upload it all over the web via social media, giving fans the chance to reblog, retweet, and share videos with all of the fellow fans. Bands and record labels don’t have to worry about constantly promoting anymore because the fans are doing all the work for them.

The Olympics are one of the grandest stages of them all when it comes to sport. Athletes come from all over the world to participate in the global event. So when one athlete causes such an uproar via social media, it has to be taken seriously.

Voula Papachristou, a Greek triple jumper, was banned from this summer’s games and sent home after a social media blunder that included a racist tweet towards Africans in her home country of Greece. “With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food,” the tweet read. She was immediately sent packing by her home country after the tweet caused a backlash that included such comments as “Xenophobic comments from a Greek athlete in the Olympic mission are unacceptable. We are ashamed.” The athlete later apologized for her comments, but the damage had already been done.

With so many professionals connected to the social media world, it’s only a matter of time before someone slips up and makes a mistake on a social media platform. Some blunders are small and are easily forgotten, but others such as this one are remembered for a while and are prime examples of what not to do with social media.

With more, and more social media blunders popping up everyday, many professional and college teams are taking action. Some college coaches have even banned players from using social media sites, such as twitter. I believe that this is a correct step in protecting the brand image of the team and players involved. Social media is a valuable tool, but it can also do serious damage to a brands reputation if not handled correctly.

I am a firm believer that social media is one of the best marketing tools, aside from word-of-mouth that a small, local business can utilize. Social media has turned in recent years from a networking tool to one of the most powerful tools a business can use to market their brand.

Many small businesses have an extremely small budget for marketing and promotion. Small businesses can’t afford the flashy advertising that you seen corporate businesses using on the internet and television. Of course, radio and print advertising are both affordable options, but both of those options are in their dying days and don’t have the wide reach that they once did.

The majority of small businesses rely on word-of-mouth to expand their brand. But word-of-mouth can only go so far these days. Social media, once considered to be a fad, is here to stay and is playing a valuable role in the success of many self-start and small businesses. It lets local businesses reach people that they otherwise wouldn’t in the print advertising and radio market.

The Cookie Jar & More here in Bowling Green, Ohio, started from the ground-up six years ago. The business has flourished through word-of-mouth for the most part, but recently has just started to make an online appearance through the use of social media.

I was hired on at the Cookie Jar & More in September of 2011. I took over the curation of the Cookie Jar’s social media in April of 2012. I came took the position with a few main goals that I believed would help the Cookie Jar succeed as one of the most powerful local businesses in Bowling Green.

I wanted to make sure that we were targeting the correct audience. Bowling Green being a “college town,” I knew that our target audience had to be the university and its students. With a target audience between the ages of 18 and 24, my main goal was to be extremely active on Twitter.

Why not Facebook you ask? Well although Facebook has the largest audience of all social media, it doesn’t necessarily hold the best chances of reaching our target audience. Facebook has become very “watered down” in the past few years, much of that having to due with Facebook migrating to become the world’s largest photo sharing site. Even though Facebook is great for social conversation between friends, it’s not the best tool for creating social engagement between business and consumer.

Along with just being active on Twitter, I wanted to make sure the activity was worth it. My goal was to create engagement between our brand and the customers that follow us. My plan was to treat every tweet and question just as if a customer came into the store with the same situation. No phone call can go unanswered and the same fits with social media. Every question, comment, and concern must be treated like a phone call. Being honest, open, and upfront with customers is the best way to represent the brand.

Since April when I started, the response from the Bowling Green community has been phenomenal. Our following has increased substantially from ~250 followers to over 700 in just a few months. Our social media presence has transformed into one of the most followed and active local business accounts in Bowling Green, and it can only get better in the coming years.

With all of the new online social media popping up, employers are taking notice and beginning to investigate potential employees, along with employees that have been with the company for quite some time.

I do believe that it is O.K. for employers to do a little investigating and research on potential employees. The businesses and employers have the resources to do so, so why wouldn’t they? It then becomes future employee’s responsibility to be aware of the pros and cons of having social media accounts. For example, a person going out for a night on the town should keep the phone and camera in the pocket during the night instead of live tweeting and updating their facebook photos at 2 a.m.

People need to understand that in the business world these days, everyone represents their own “personal brand.” I have spent the last few years building my personal brand to where I am now. I take pride in my social media accounts, especially my twitter account. I would be comfortable presenting my twitter account to future employers and showing them the work that I have done in the past. I maintain a “clean” feed, produce online news, and keep my followers up to date with what is going on in my life. I am completely transparent with what I do and what is posted on my account.

To some, what I do would make them uncomfortable if the public was aware of what they were doing to that extent, but I see it a different way. By being completely transparent online, I am gaining the trust of my followers and my future employers. I believe that honesty is the best thing to have in this online digital age.

What it comes down to is that employers aren’t stalking their potential employees in the digital age just to find their dirty laundry. Some are looking to find what they’ve done in the real world and what kind of experience they have. This is the day and age where your resume is not only on paper, but represented through your online brand.

Popularity of music is on the rise, but students in Bowling Green, Ohio, are choosing to download it illegally instead of purchasing it.

“I don’t download music through iTunes. I don’t see why anyone would. I use YouTube, or get music from other friends for free,” said Lance Dauch, an education major, from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

Music is now available through programs such as iTunes and also available free on sites such as YouTube, Spotify and Pandora. According to an article in the Rolling Stone, the fractions of cents that artists collect from streaming sites make it next to impossible to track how much they make.

According to the Rolling Stone, top artists receive approximately $1 for every 1,000 plays on YouTube and on Internet radio, artists get 25 percent of the company’s annual revenue, which comes out to be around $0.001 per stream of song.

Many music fans felt that sites such as YouTube and Pandora are actually helping musicians.

“It’s much easier for artists to gain fans these days with all of the online music sites,” said Jordan Deck, a medical technology major, from Toledo, Ohio. “Before, it was all word of mouth, and sometimes great bands were never even discovered.”

According to the Rolling Stone, compact-discs were once the main way of selling music, but have been faded out because of online downloads.

Several students on campus are happy with the direction music is going.

“CD’s just can’t compete with online downloads,” said Ariana Panagiota, a fashion major, from Pittsburgh. “It’s so much easier to carry around an iPod with thousands of songs instead of carrying around a CD with only 15 songs on it.”

Music is continuously evolving, and only time can tell what is in store for music fans in the future. Some students believe that illegal downloading is only a phase.

“I think eventually the government will step in and create a system to go after illegal downloading more than they do now,” said Josh Kelley, a sport management major, from Lima, Ohio. “The illegal downloading has got to come to an end. Musicians are getting cheated out of millions of dollars. It isn’t fair to anyone involved with the creation of music.”

Liam Gallagher, the former front-man and lead singer of Oasis, has recently admitted that he would consider reconciling with his brother Noel to tour their album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, for it’s 20th year anniversary in 2015. Liam was quoted by the Rolling Stone saying, “In 2015, if we can put our shit aside, we can tour and play the album in its entirety for the 20th anniversary. I’d be up for that, if it’s on our terms. There’s got to be two-way respect.”

The two brothers, Liam and Noel, haven’t spoken since Noel walked out on the band after an altercation, minutes before Oasis was supposed to headline a Paris music festival. Back in August, when the Rolling Stone asked Noel about a possible Oasis reunion he was quoted saying, “Liam has said that the idea makes him vomit and it would never happen. So I don’t need to add anything to that. I don’t need the fucking money, but I think it’s a shame that songs like ‘Champagne Supernova,’ ‘Rock and Roll Star, and ‘The Shock of the Lightning’ will never be played again.”

Both brothers have been busy with their own projects. Liam and his new band, Beady Eye, recently released their debut album titled Different Gear, Still Spinning. The album hit #3 on the U.K. charts in it’s first week and has received good reviews since then. Noel, on the other hand,is the star of his solo group, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. The group just released their debut album last week and have plans for a European tour later this year.

You can read the full bio of Oasis, including their history and past endeavors here.