Know how business and industry affect music-makers and users
Business and industry: music as commodity (investment and return, profit and loss); market forces eg
trends, fashions, youth culture; economic power of individual (artistic freedom, political use of celebrity
status); company (major companies buy out ‘indies’); collective (industry lobbying power, control of the
market); corporate sponsorship (philanthropy or strategy) expansion of publishing and printing; Individual
and private: charitable bodies and foundations; non-government funding;
amateur music-makers;
selffinancing
Business and industry: music as commodity (investment and return, profit and loss); market forces eg
trends, fashions, youth culture; economic power of individual (artistic freedom, political use of celebrity
status); company (major companies buy out ‘indies’); collective (industry lobbying power, control of the
market); corporate sponsorship (philanthropy or strategy) expansion of publishing and printing; Individual
and private: charitable bodies and foundations; non-government funding;
amateur music-makers;
selffinancing
The music business
The music business is just like any outer business in the world. It is very competitive and it is full of people trying to make money. There are two ends of the industry. The end where everybody is self-financed and are trying to make ends meat. And the side with all the money and the major labels where there are huge shows that sell out and everybody makes a lot of money. There are lots of different parts of the music business that all come to together to make it work. The musicians, the promoters, the managers, record labels... ect. The industry moves very fast with the times although some artists do stay in the limelight for a long time. Same goes in some cases for managers and other roles in the industry. On the other had some artists have the five minutes of fame and then nobody ever hears from them again.
Music as a commodity
Music is very valuable and meaningful thing to most people. One of the reasons for this id the music that has formed in different culture ass around the world. People have created music and the generations after them have taken that music and kept it as a valuable thing and are and have adapted it with the times. It has been uses full to portray how people were feeling at the time. A great example of this is the blues... It began when slaves sang together and it has evolved to be so much more than that and it is so important to so many people even today.
Music is useful to every day people because when you are feeling blue there is music for you to pick you up and to make you feel better and to over all brighten your mood. Music is around us and we take it for granted, if we did not have music it the world would be a very different place.
Music is useful to every day people because when you are feeling blue there is music for you to pick you up and to make you feel better and to over all brighten your mood. Music is around us and we take it for granted, if we did not have music it the world would be a very different place.
Some examples of music as a commodity
BluesThe blues is a great example of how music as a commodity has evolved from nothing. The blues began when it was being sung by slaves. After years and years of the blues evolving with the slaves it was passed onto the next generation where it eventually made its way into the clubs in England. Because of that the commodity of the blues music was generated.
Blues music then turned into R and B, (Rhythm and blues).This is the main feature of most of the chart music that is in the chars these days. It is defiantly safe top say that rhythm and blues is a commodity. |
Youth culture/tchnoligy
The music industry has changes so much since the invention of the internet. It is safe to say that the technology of the internet has revisionised the music industry. So much so that a lot of the younger generation will never have owned a CD, because there is simply on need to buy a hard copy of a album when you can download it from online and listen to it without leaving the comfort of your own home. In my generation, the vast majority of music listeners download there music. It is easier in the day and age that we live in. You can download music trait to you smart phone when you not even at home. You can see how this has such a big appeal to music lovers. Of cores there will always be people who would rather have the CD who will buy the CD from a shop. You can even buy the CDs online these days witch means that you don't even need to go out to the shops anymore.
This revolution in the way that we buy our music has of cores affected the music industry in outer ways too. Bellow I have attached a picture of one of the leading retail stores for buying CDs and Vinyls. The name of this shop is HMV. HMV were forced to shut down because they weren't making enough money. Not all of the shops in the chane have shut down but a lot of them were forced to.
This revolution in the way that we buy our music has of cores affected the music industry in outer ways too. Bellow I have attached a picture of one of the leading retail stores for buying CDs and Vinyls. The name of this shop is HMV. HMV were forced to shut down because they weren't making enough money. Not all of the shops in the chane have shut down but a lot of them were forced to.
The effect on music makers -
There is a huge effect on the music maker because of the advance of technology. Music makers are now having to start distributing the music on-line more that in hard copies because the internet is the mane way that people sell there music now days. So even through that you can see the vast effect on music makers!
The effect on music listeners -
The effect on music listeners is just as big as the effect on music makers apart from the change is at the outer end where they buy the music as opposed to where they sell it. Music listeners don't have to go very far at all to buy there music. They can do it on there phones or on there computers instead of having to go down to the record shop.
Self financed / independent musicians/ music makes
Self financing and basicly managing your won carer can be a very difficult thing to do in the music industry. There are lots of very good examples of bads who were picked up by labels for there first few albums and then once there contract ended and they didn't want a label because they had a big enough fan bass to carry on and take there finances into there own hands. The kings of leon are a prime example of this.
Independent musicians/ Music makes
There are so many independent musicians working around the world. The vast majority of live music you see in pubs or jazz bars or acoustic nights like open mics will be musicians who work independently. This means that they will find there work without the help of a manager or a promoter. As the name suggests, they work on there own. This is money in being a independent musician however it is not always easy to get.
In the two pictures above are some prime examples of musicians who began there careers signed to big labels and then when there contract ended, they kept on going without the support of the label and self financed them self's This means that they are the ones that financed all of the products that they produced. Whether that be a EP album or and album or even a music video. The reason that they could do this so successfully is because they had got such a big following from the time in there career when thy had the major label behind them, paying for the advertisement and all of the rest of it. There fans don't care if there are signed to a label or not. All they care about is hearing the new music that they bring out or seeing the new videos that they bring out.
Company's
Indie labels
An independent record label is a record label that operates without funding like the major record labels have. An independent record label an often be referred to as an indie record label. Indie record labels sometimes depend on signing agreements with major record labels to help with the funding for projects with bigger artists. One of the good things about an independent record label is that they are more lightly to let you as a musician do things for your projects the way that you want to do them and they will often be more tolerant and let you do things your way. Major record labels are more lightly to be a bit more pushy and make you make your album of rep album the way that they think is right and the way that they think is cool and they are less lightly to take into account the way that you want to do things. There have been many artists that started on in independent record labels including Elvis Presily. When a band is sighed to an independent record label they might end up getting much higher royalties that they would get if they were sighed up to a Major record label. This is because most artists sighed on major record labels earn a 10 to 15% royalty on their music whereas when there are sighed on an independent record label they will probably get between 40 to 75% royalties on their music. The reason for this is that the production costs are much lowered when you produce music with an indie label than when you produce with a major label.
Major labels
Major record labels are the record labels that have all the money and have the potential to make very good artists or bands into successful musicians who tour and play lots of live shows and sell lots of albums. Here are some examples of major record labels that most musicians will have heard of: Warner Music Group, Sony, BMG, Universal Music Group and EMI. Most major record label artists earn a 10 to 15% royalty on their music. But before the artist can receive there royalties their label must be clear of all debts related to their music. This means that the case could be that the artist won’t get paid until the record label has received all the money for the production the music and maybe the videos. When a band or an artist get signed to a major record label the recording for whatever they are producing will be done in a very professional recording studio. When recording with an indie label the recording is not lightly to be of the same quality as it would be in professional studio. However when you are signed to a major record label the label might want to produce your music in a way you don’t like. Unlike on an indie label where you are more lightly to be able to do things your way, the major label has the power to produce it how they like and they might not do what you want.
RCA - much like a lot of outer labels, began as a indie labels, and were then bought out by a major label. In this instant the label were actually bought out by Sony. When I say a label bought them out, what it really means is that the major label saw the bands that the label had signed and thought we would like those bands to be on our label, so they offer the indie label a lot of money and then the take management of the label and the acts.
market forces eg
trends, fashions, youth culture; economic power of individual
The market forces used to sell music now days are always changing. Things like the trend and the fashion are constantly changing. The way that you uses these market forces successfully is to make sure that the your product is changing with the trends and the fashion so that the youth will think its cool and buy it. Youths don't often want to stand out, they want to fit in to the crows and do what everyone else is doing. Thats why the trends change so quickly.
Music streaming (spotify) ect.
The company's that stream the music and the artist that allow there music to be in essence are at war with each outer this is because they are both in it to make money. On one angle you have artists that don't care about the amount of royalties they get because they are on major label so
they don't care. Indie artists are they gone agree less to the way in witch streaming company's give out royalties because there make no money from it. But on the outer hand It a stream company said we will give you 10 to 2 present then they would go out of business. The only reason a major label can give someone something like 2 percent is they don't have to spend as much money on the same thing the big labels need to spend money on like networking. And the reason the indie labels can afford to give good royalties is because they didn't spend as much money on marketing and promotion.
they don't care. Indie artists are they gone agree less to the way in witch streaming company's give out royalties because there make no money from it. But on the outer hand It a stream company said we will give you 10 to 2 present then they would go out of business. The only reason a major label can give someone something like 2 percent is they don't have to spend as much money on the same thing the big labels need to spend money on like networking. And the reason the indie labels can afford to give good royalties is because they didn't spend as much money on marketing and promotion.
Amateur music makers
There are so many amateur music makes all around the world. I think that one of the mane reasons for this is that the technology in music making has come on leaps and bounds and because of this it is so easy to produce music at minimum costs. It costs very little to get music making software on your laptop and to produce music on your own. It is now very cheep to pit together you own studio. Even cheaper than that would be to put together your own midi set up.
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