The music industry

Music Industry Crisis

For most of the 20th century, record companies made money by selling a tangible product - a vinyl, disc or CD. You owned music by having a disc collection.

Changing Tech

With the internet, the music industry has had to adapt as CD sales are falling each year. The 'product' is new bought online as a single song or album, only exists only as an item, on an IPod, mobile phone or computer.

The music industry claimed as a victory in 2009 when four men behind the file-sharing site 'Pirate-Bay' were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay £2.5m in damages for helping internet users to download music, films and computer games without paying for them.

HMV vs ITunes

Chief executive Simon Fox said that within three years, technology would become its single biggest product category ahead of both CDs and DVDs. It plans to devote 25% of the floor space to just MP3 players, tablets, computers and headphones.

De-commodification

A commodity always depends for its status and its value. Once the reproduction and distribution of that commodity becomes effectively free, then it necessarily loses that value and that status.

The three major record labels, as of now are:

- Sony BMG
- Universal Music Group
- Warner Music Group

Artists who are signed to one of these major record labels are either signed to the parent label or the subsidiary of that label. For example, Sony is the parent company to the subsidiary label, Columbia Records. Some artists who are under Columbia Records are Adele, Beyoncé and John Legend. Advantages of being under a major record label is that, when producing a music video, it will have a high production value, wide distribution when the album or song is released, international tours, merchandise, and vast advertising across a range of different platforms. Disadvantages of being under a major record label is that you get little freedom, the company has complete creative control of your music and little to no attention is shown to you because you as the artist may not be as successful as other artists who are under the same label. Therefore, if you do not meet the amount of money, or results that they expect back from producing your music, then you are most likely to be forgotten by the company.

EMI used to be part of the big four but now it is only the big three; ever since Universal Music had bought EMI. These labels can make up almost 80% of the music market, depending on the year, however it was estimated to be about two-thirds in 2016.

Here are some examples of independent record labels:

- 4AD
- Rough Trade Records
- LAB Records

Advantages of being under an independent record label is that the company will be more likely to be passionate about your music personally and therefore be driven to get your music across to the audience when promoting. The artist or band will also have most of the creative control when producing music or a music video and since independent labels are significantly smaller in amounts of artists, the company will be likely to pay more attention to you. However, there are limitations to being signed under an independent label such as, there is a lower budget in comparison to the budget that major record labels are able to have. Consequently, the artist or band will gain less money back depending on their success.