The Music Industry

The Music Industry

There are two different types of record labels and that consists of:

Mainstream Record Labels

This type of label has a large organisation with revenue available for different acts, for example someone who sings Latin music and someone who sings R'N'B (Rhythm & Blues) They are saturate markets and offer high production values on promotional material. Mainstream record labels include Sony Entertainment and EMI just to name a few. 

Independent Record Labels

This type of label is separate to and operate independently of mainstream label.  Independent labels often operate within 'niche' genres and  cater to specific markets like 'Grime and House' music for example. 

What is the aim of the artist?

The aim of the artist is to build up a profile for themselves and gain popularity. They sign up to a label in order to promote their music to their target audience and to sell maximum numbers of albums. 

Who owns the music?

Well, majority of the time it is the record label which owns all the songs so really, once an artist signs to a record label there just really throwing away the rights to have and produce their own music! Sad really. 

The History

Between the 1970's to the late 1990's there was the 'Big Six' record labels which was:

• Warner Music Group
• EMI Group
• Sony Music
• BMG Music
• Universal Music Group
• Polygram

The late 1990's saw the merging of companies into more bigger, powerful and united companies to create the 'Big Five' which was:

• Warner Music Group
• EMI Group
• Sony Music
• Universal Music Group
• BMG Music

From 2004 we then saw that BMG Music and Sony Music merging to create the 'Big Four.'

All four of the companies own smaller groups, subsidiary labels that specialise in different genres/areas of the markets.

Due to the popularity of Digital music the sales for albums have fallen heavily over the last two years losing approximately one-hundred million pounds. 

Sales for albums dropped over 100 million in 2 years

2010 - 319 Million

2009 - 366 Million

2008 - 428 Million

Sales of Digital singles

2010 - 160 Million

2009 - 149.7 Million

Sales of Digital albums

2010 - 21 Million

2009 - 16.1 Million

Current Trend

There are 67 legal music downloadable services available in the UK including Amazon and Itunes which are cheap and cheerful. However there are a lot more illegal websites were you can download music for free. The main source for illegally downloading music is Youtube Converter. 

#FACT - 3/4 of all music downloaded in the UK was done so illegally. 

#FACT - 1.2 Billion illegal downloads in the UK using Youtube Converter software in 2010

Streaming

Youtube is a popular source of watching and listening to music videos for internet users for free. If you have subscribed to a Youtube user this allows music to be delivered to you, for example, on demand. Free sites also cover there cost with an advertising revenue. 

Other possible sources include:

Social networking sites:

• Facebook is to offer a 'music streaming' filesharing service and indicate who is listening to what on status updates. 
• Google Plus is to offer similar services too.

Artists website:

• Independent artists can sell their own music on their own website.