RESEARCH - Music Industry

Record Industry consists of two labels:

Mainstream labels 

who have a lot of money, and are able to offer high production values in their music videos, e.g Sony Entertainment

Independent labels 

who do not have as much money as the mainstream labels.  They often operate with niche genres, e.g Soul Jazz


OWNERSHIP:

- Between the 1970s and the 1990s, ‘the big 6’ dominated the music industry
- By the late 90s, due to more media convergence, ‘the big 5’ then dominated
- In 2004 Sony & BMG merged and as of 2010 the four major labels are
(SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, EMI GROUP, WARNER MUSIC GROUP & UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP)
 
Each of them own smaller labels that specialise in specific genres/areas of the market

CURRENT TRENDS:

Due to the shift in analogue to digital, sales are falling.
Sales for albums have dropped over £100m in two years
2010 > 319m
2009 > 366m
2008 > 428




Illegal downloading plays a major role in the decline in album sales, for example youtube converter.
¾ of all downloaded music in the UK is illegal
In 2010, there were 1.2 billion illegal downloads in the UK

However:
There are 67 legal music downloading services in just the UK
(Amazon, iTunes, Spotify are convenient and affordable)

STREAMING:


- Some websites can be free to get music or by paid subscription
- Allows music to be delivered to a user on demand 
- Free websites cover their costs by advertising, e.g youtube

OTHER POSSIBLE SOURCES:
- Social networking sites are a very popular way for artists to promote new upcoming music videos, music albums and anything else music orientated.
- Facebook has fan pages, where the artists managers are likely to be controlling the page.  Famous hip hop musician Eminem has over 47million 'likes' on his facebook page, and all these people can be updated with his latest news whenever visiting the page.

   

Eminem's facebook fan page

- Twitter has a similar structure to Facebook, but instead of liking a fan page, you can 'follow' the artist's account.  Following the artist keeps you updated with their latest news, and if you're lucky they might even 'follow' you back, which means you will be allowed to inbox them privately.  But with artists that have MILLIONS of followers, it's very rare to get a follow back.  Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, are the two artists that have the most followers on twitter:  Gaga has nearly 14million, and Bieber has nearly 13million.

Justin Bieber's twitter page

Lady Gaga's twitter page