“I woke up at the moment when the miracle occurred/ Heard a song that made some sense out of the world/Everything I ever lost now has been returned/The most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.” – ‘The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)’ by U2

Before the rise of social media, tracking music was simpler. Just buy a cassette or its follow-up, in the form of an audio CD, from a shop close to home and voila, you had exactly what was being churned out by a handful of artists.

It started changing, though.

For instance, in 2009, Overload released their second album, Pichal Pairee, online. During those days, Pakistan had (give or take) about 17.5 million internet users.

In fact, Overload was not the only music act to do so. Mekaal Hasan Band first dropped their second album, Saptak, online via CDbaby.com and then released the same on iTunes and Amazon.

With a population of nearly 180 million, it was a period when artists, not trapped by monopolistic record deals, were taking baby steps towards embracing the digital world.

Fast forward to 2024 and the numbers tell a radically different story. If a report by Statista - which provides detailed insight, figures and analysis into more than 150 countries and across more than 100 industries – is to be believed, the numbers game has changed and risen to a whole other level.

In 2024, households with internet stand at 17. 11m.

Internet usage through mobile phones stands at 28.38m in 2024 while internet users in Pakistan amount to 68.84m in 2024.

In conclusion, market penetration of the internet in Pakistan is estimated to be at 28.07 percent in 2024.

These figures easily explain how music has moved from analog to digital. It has allowed social media, from YouTube to TikTok to Spotify to Google, to officially become a part of the market. You don’t need to mask your steps to........

© The News on Sunday