The big music story of 2005 turned to be the success of the Arctic Monkeys, a British group debut single went straight to the top of the charts. But theirs was ordinary success story in the music business. Far being discovered and promoted by one of the big record labels, the group had made it their own; recording their own material and freely distributing it via the Internet. Music fans had downloaded the songs, realised good they were and then forwarded the files to their friends by means of became known as 'file sharing'. In words, the group's reputation had been established via word-of-mouth.
The previous decade had seen a real revolution home recording. It had become possible for anyone with musical talent, and a modest amount to invest in the latest digital equipment, to achieve home recordings of comparable quality those produced in professional studios.
To people in the music business, , the idea of allowing free downloading was unthinkable. Surely, they reasoned, if you your music away on the Internet, would buy a hard copy. But the success of the Arctic Monkeys demonstrated that the loss of potential income when people downloaded songs than buying them, could be offset by the increased exposure the music got a result. In effect, it was worth making some songs freely available as a way of generating interest in others for , of course, people had to pay.