Music industry  

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In the 2000s, a majority of the music industry is controlled by three major record labels: the French-owned Universal Music Group, the Japanese-owned Sony Music Entertainment, and the US-owned Warner Music Group. Labels outside of these three major labels are referred to as independent labels (or "indies").


"Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed."--"The problem with music" (1993) by Steve Albini

This page Music industry is part of the music series.Illustration: Sheet music to "Buffalo Gals" (c. 1840), a traditional song.Maxim: "writing about music is like dancing about architecture".
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This page Music industry is part of the music series.
Illustration: Sheet music to "Buffalo Gals" (c. 1840), a traditional song.
Maxim: "writing about music is like dancing about architecture".

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The music industry consists of the companies and independent artists that earn money by creating new songs and pieces and organising live concerts and shows, audio and video recordings, compositions and sheet music, and the organizations and associations that aid and represent music creators. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate in the industry are: the songwriters and composers who create new songs and musical pieces; the singers, musicians, conductors and bandleaders who perform the music; the companies and professionals who create and sell recorded music and/or sheet music.

Contents

History

Early commoditization of music

Until the 1700s, the process of composition and printing of music was mostly supported by patronage from the aristocracy and church. In the mid-to-late 1700s, performers and composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began to seek commercial opportunities to market their music and performances to the general public. After Mozart's death, his wife (Constanze Weber) continued the process of commercialization of his music through an unprecedented series of memorial concerts, selling his manuscripts, and collaborating with her second husband, Georg Nissen, on a biography of Mozart.

In the 1800s, the music industry was dominated by sheet music publishers. In the United States, the music industry arose in tandem with the rise of blackface minstrelsy. The group of music publishers and songwriters which dominated popular music in the United States was known as Tin Pan Alley.

The phonographic age

In the early 20th century, the phonograph industry grew greatly in importance, and the record industry eventually replaced the sheet music publishers as the industry's largest force.

A multitude of record labels came and went, but a handful of label corporations prospered for decades. By the end of the 1980s, the "Big 6" — EMI, Sony, BMG, PolyGram, WEA and MCA — dominated the industry. In mid-1998, PolyGram merged into Universal Music Group (formerly MCA), dropping the leaders down to a "Big 5". They became the "Big 4" in 2004 when Sony combined with BMG.

21st century changes

Just as radio and television did before it, the advent of file sharing technologies has changed the balance between record companies, song writers, and performing artists. Bands such as Metallica have fought back against peer-to-peer programs such as the infamous Napster, and the arguments for and against technology to circumvent them - digital rights management systems - remain controversial. With the advent of Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music store in 2003, legal music downloads became widely available.

By June 2008, digital music sales generated around $2 billion in revenue, with tracks available through 500 online services located in 40 countries, representing around 10 percent of the total global music market. Revenue from retail CD sales, however, continued to fall. IBISWorld reported in June 2008 that "the industry's financial future looks bleak," but noted that, although revenues have decreased, artists have suffered less than record companies, since they can "make most of their money on merchandise sales and touring."

See also

See culture industry, cultural appropriation in western music, artworld economics, The problem with music, Digital rights management
Richard Branson, Ed Bahlman




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Music industry" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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