Media Industry
The music
industry is part of the Creative Arts Business which includes cinema and
theatre, where music is an integral part of their activities. The aim of the
music industry is to make money from a product; music, by designing and selling
it. While selling within the music industry, the concept is the same as in any
other business; to sell a product for more than it costs to make it, and so
create a profit that is used to pay the creators of the music. Economic work
released shows true value of core UK music industry. In
2013, a report was released by the UK Music revealing that the economic
contribution of the core UK music industry is £3.5bn. This is made up of: £1.6bn from
musicians, composers and songwriters; £634 m from recorded music; £662m from
live music; £402m from music publishing; £151m from music representatives; £80m
from music producers, recording studios; £1.4bn the value of exports; 101,680
full time jobs.
In the 2000s, a
majority of the music market is controlled by three major corporate labels: the
French-owned Universal Music Group, the Japanese-owned Sony Music
Entertainment, and the US-owned Warner Music Group. These labels represent the
majority of the music sold, making up as much as 80% of the music market or
more depending on the year. Labels outside
of these three major labels are referred to as independent labels.
The product ‘music’ is created by talented composers and musicians and
then produced by a record
company. It is delivered to us the public in a way that we can hear it as
recorded music through CDs or online downloads on Apple music or Spotify. This
process is called distribution.
Furthermore, performances are also arranged so that we can see the musicians
perform live in a suitable venue such as the o2 Arena. The largest portion of
the live music market for concerts and tours is controlled by Live Nation, who is
a former subsidiary of iHeartMedia Inc, which is the largest owner of radio
stations in the United States. Creative Artists Agency is a large talent
management and booking company which represents singers and bands.
The current
headliners of each of the three major corporate labels:
- Universal Music Group – Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Luke Bryan, Drake, Abba, The Beatles
- Sony Music Entertainment – AC/DC, James Arthur, Beyonce, Chris Brown, The Chainsmokers
- Warner Music Group – Madonna, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, David Guetta, Wiz Khalifa
The music industry is a very competitive market. As a result, promotion is used to inform the public about what music is available. Record companies pay for the production, promotion and distribution of music. This is expensive and comes out of the royalties paid to musicians, producer, composers and the record company when the music is exploited. Royalties are very small sums of money paid to musicians, composers, writers, and the record company each time a song is ‘exploited’, that is played on the radio, TV or bought as a CD/download.
Due to the development in technology, more platforms are emerging now, giving the audience a much broader range of sources they can use to obtain new as well as, existing music from. These include;
- Amazon Prime Music - offers more than a million music tracks or albums to streaming over the internet or download for offline listening without you having to purchase them outright.
- Soundcloud - the world's leading social sound platform where anyone can listen to or create sounds and share them everywhere.
- Youtube - a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos, where you can even create and upload your own videos to share with others
- Itunes - provides the user with access to more than 250 genre-focused stations. iTunes Radio also creates stations around the artists, songs, or genres you choose
- Spotify - gives you the power to choose and create stations based on your selection results or listen to pre-selected stations based on genre. You can also discover new music to add to your favorites.
- Apple Music - a music-streaming service, developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing, curated playlists
- Tidal - a subscription-based music streaming service that rivals the likes of Spotify but targets audiophiles who want higher-quality, lossless audio. It also offers high-definition music videos and curated editorial content from big names in the music industry including its owner, Jay Z.
Strengths:
ReplyDeleteYou have used statistics and percentages to show what impacts the music industry has and you also have looked at different platforms in which music is distributed in detail.
Improvements:
Could use images to back up your research and what you have found out. You could maybe also go into more detail about the specific artists and why they are important to the company.
You used a structured look at your analysis of the music industry, I like this approach as it makes it easier to focus on each individual point. However it can limit your sense of writing style, try a more open approach next time as it will open up more avenues to write in.
ReplyDeleteAnother good approach is the way in which you discuss the industry. How its mechanics the different artist affect sales and the entire process all together. However, additionally, you could add a more personalised approach to the artist we are studying, giving a more retrospective look at the industry, rather than just looking at how the producers run the industry. Look at how artists are involved, how they influence everything.