RESEARCH- Summary of the Music Industry 2012

Summary of the Music Industry 2012 

The music industry has changed dramatically over time. The record industry is divided into 2 as followed below.

Major labels: 
These are a large organisation that offer a high production on promotional materials. Major labels are media conglomerates (share various types of content).

Independent labels: 
These labels operate independently who often work with a niche (narrow) genre targeting a specific market. Changes are still happening quickly due to more and more people downloading illegally. There are changes in the following fields Distribution, Exchange and production.

Distribution: 
Before the year 2012 music was distributed through objects such as CDs vinyl records tapes etc. Now however in out industry today they have been compressed into something smaller such as MP3 which are digitally distributed making us no longer need the analogue technology anymore. 

Digital copies tend to be easier to access , and share which leads to consumers use napster pirate bay, and itunes todownloading illegally. Piracy is known to be a negative aspect for record labels due to them losing out on money as people are now seen to download there music for free and tend not to buy CDs 

 

Exchange: Though years there is now seen to be no exchange anymore as people are getting there music for free. Music is seen to now be more portable such as iPods that tend to have more than people downloading music but a library internet (access youtube) and many more this is known as convergence where more than one software is put into a piece of technology such as having a iPod that not only stores music but also has the internet. This results in the huge fall of CDs declining, massively harming the majority of the record labels leading them to think of an alternative solution such as fragrent CD and example would be Katy perry who made her CD have a scent of Candy floss. 

Production: Todays society people can produce music anywhere at any time without needing a record label or a recording studio as they have the advance hardware to do so. An example would be Ed sheeren as he was shown to be discovered on youtube and then got famous. 

There have been a large amount of record labels but now it has come down to only 3 which are Conglomerates sony, Access industry and vivendi they are all shown to immerse around 88% of all sales.

Vivendi: 
Vivendi own digital products such as TV's, Video games and other electrical products. They are a subsidiary record companies such as def jam island records etc. Vivendi belong to the Universal music group, artistes which have been sighed by them include Katy perry, Lady GaGa etc.

Conglomerates Sony: 
Sony are also another major record label who owe many products in the industry technologies include laptops, headphones, TV and many more. The major record company is sony music entertainment, the subsidiary records include columbia bluebird and epic records. Artists who have been signed by this company are Leona Lewis, Chris Brown etc.

As shown above i have illustrated a wide range of products in which sony have produced which include game consoles, headphones, laptops cameras etc.

Access industry: 
Access industry owe different media and communication channels include , cartoon network.  The major record company is  Warner music group , the subsidiary record company  are linked with atlantic Marveric records. Artists signed to the major include Plan B B.O.B etc.

Music videos used to be the only way in which people were able to access there most interested artist which was mostly on television such as MTV, the Hits etc. Now however due to us having digital tecnology  we now watch videos through youtube how we want being able to search for the particular song we want to listen to.

The role of music videos are to promote the artist, in our society now it is hard as people are not purchasing music anymore they are getting it for free, this means that the labels are investing high budget on there videos but are getting no money from this process due to people downloading for free. However although we see artists lose out on the money , they gain good publicity sites such as youtube, twitter etc help promote such as both on twitter and facebook we see that they are making pages that everyone is able to access there events and many more, this helps the artist well known world wide allowing people to listen to there music and potentially could result in them attending concerts and could buy the CDs made from that artist.