Research for Music video-The music industry

The music Industry 

A brief History

How was the industry Structured?

The record industry is divided into two parts- Main stream labels and Independent labels

Mainstream labels- Large organisation with revenue available for different acts and are therefore able to saturate markets of high production values on promotional material.

Independent labels- They are separate and operate independently of the mainstream labels. Often operate within niche genres and later to a specific market.

How has the ownership changed over the years?

Between 1980's and 1990's  the industry was dominated by "the big 6', however the late 90's saw the merging of companies into bigger companies to create 'the big 5'. In 2004, Sony, music, BM6 merged and the market was dominated by 'the big 4'. Now in present times 'the big four are: Universal music group, Sony entertainment, EMI  group and Warner music group.

Each of these won smaller subisidury  labels that specialise in different genres/areas of market, which enable 'the big 4' to dominate most markets.

Current Situation

Falling sales, falling profit margines- The record companies in 2010

Sales for albums-drop of 100million in 2yrs

>2010-319m

>2009-366m

>2008-421m

This is due to the shirts of consumer behaviour. The commercialisation of the internet and web 2.0 has seen a wider shift in how fans consume music.

Web 2.0> Technology enable

             > Sharing Functions

             > Enables consumer to create and share their own products.

Current Trends

Downloading MP3 Format

- 67 legal music download services available in the UK alone.

-Amazon and i tunes are convenient and cheap

Illegal downloading

-3/4 of all downloading music in the UK is illegal

-1.2 billion illegal downloads in the UK in 2010

-Youtube converter MP3 software

Streaming

-Allows music to be declined to a user on demand

- Sites can be free or by paid subscription

-Free sites often cover their costs with advertising revenue.

The role of a music video in the current situation

-To promote the artists latest single

-Aired on MTV and other music elements

The music video today

-Struggle to have the same impact on record sales.

-Youtube means that fans can access the video ans song n demand for free.

-Without the video, does the song have the same impact?

-Videos need to give the artists exposure and engage new existing fans.