Virtual busking

Virtual busking takes the concept of busking--to play music or perform entertainment in a public place, usually while soliciting money --to the online stage. In today's digital world, the image of a busking musician is not just one playing on a street corner for donations; now performers have taken advantage of the Internet as a free music distribution vehicle. While a wide-range of notable artists didn't have a choice but to begin their careers busking on the streets, such as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffet, Kanye West, and even Benjamin Franklin, an even greater number of performers today, many already well-established artists, seek to busk online by choice because of its anticipated benefits: the belief that not only can their music be distributed more easily to reach a larger virtual audience, but that they will also be praised more highly by their fans for their generous acts.
Demise of the Record Label
Advent of Online File Sharing
Age of Napster
With the onset of digital file sharing programs such as Napster, Kazaa, and BearShare, the Internet quickly became a vehicle for free music. Like it or not, many artists became victims of the illegal file sharing craze that began when Shawn Fanning founded Napster in 1999. Since then, there have been a number of court cases addressing the legality of such software. Just as one program is considered illegal and shutdown, however, a new program, similar in nature, is often created. What's debatable is the impact that file sharing has on record sales. While there are many ethical issues involved with illegal file sharing, many bands have found this criminal activity to infact boost the sales of their records.
Perhaps the most well-known "success story" of illegal file sharing is that of
Radiohead's Kid A album, which was leaked to Napster three months before the release of the CD. Millions of fans had the album downloaded for free by the time the album achieved the number one spot on the Billboard 200 sales chart.
First Bands to Experiment
Other Notable Bands

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