Arts in the Digital Age

       With the arrival of the digital age, a whole plethora of new artistic ideas can be explored freely. With all of the new forms of media and communication, art can really blossom. New forms of art can before explored that would never have been possible without advanced technology, such as animation. The arts have also become available to a much wider audience. For example, a piece of music in 19th century was reserved for those who could afford to go to a venue at which it was performed, and once the piece was over, that experience was essentially done for the individual. Now, a person can go onto Rhapsody Mp3 player and have thirty free listens to almost any music they desire, or search Youtube for an orchestra concert. In many ways, the high availability of art in the new digital world may seem to devalue aritistic works. Art used to be a fleeting glimpse, now it can be a lasting stare. At the same time, more artists have a chance to make their art available. There may have been another Shakespeare in Elizabethan England who didn't have the resources at their disposal to make their works known. Today, people have a whole new set of tools to create works of art and a vastly increased number of ways to spread thier art. Maintaining clear ownership of one's art may be difficult in the digital age, but maybe ownership is not so important. Mozart died before finishing his famous Requiem, meaning a colleague composed a large portion of it, not changing the fact that it is still a magnificent piece of music.