How has the music industry changed since it started? |
Music has changed dramatically over the past 100 years, as I have shown through my previous research. The most important and crucial component of music in 2016 is the industry. The music industry, simply put, is a business divided into sectors. for example; Recording, writing, performance and distribution. It is driven by profits and focuses highly on making money. It is useful because it allows musicians to record their own music without spending their own money. Musicians can also release their music comfortably without being subject to copyright, as without the record company they could not afford to sue someone for copyright.
|
The Money And The Madness
Music was never meant to be an easy way to make money. It wasn't intended to make musicians into a product. It was for everyday people to have fun and enjoy the music. Many musicians don't sell their soul to the industry and are willing to stay true to themselves however, most do. The industry is in it for the money. What does this mean? Well the rubbish you listen to on the radio is what sells. It makes a lot of money for the record companies, the radio stations and the artists, but this comes at a price. Artists, a lot of the time, don't get to write their own material. They sing what they're given because it's what their fans enjoy listening to. Of course there are exceptions and it is improving. Back in the 60's David Bowie was extremely popular and gained a massive following through his androgynous looks and whacky lyrics. Over the next 40 years he released albums that followed the trends at the time, such as his Drum and Bass album, Earthling. I personally like a lot of the songs on the album, but it's not to everyones taste. although, because of his following, people would buy the album despite the genre. Typically, artists are known not to write their own music, such as Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. Even Elvis Presley didn't have much input on his biggest tracks. Hound Dog was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
|
|
On November 25th 1991, Nirvana were asked to perform on an episode of Top Of The Pops. It was the 90's. Grunge and Punk were the biggest money making genres. In comes the industry to tear down what was meant to be about the love for music. They were asked to mime the whole song. They had the Amps off and pads on the drums so they'd make no noise, but Kurt was allowed to sing live vocals. Nirvana decided to put a metaphorical middle finger up to the industry by making it blatantly obvious that they were not playing live. This was done by Dave Grohl smashing the drums at the wrong time, Krist Novoselic swinging his Bass over his head, whilst the bass line was fairly audible, and Kurt Cobain robotically strumming his guitar out of time to the song. Cobain also sang the song an octave lower and replaced the words "load up on guns, bring your friends," for "load up on drugs, kill your friends." After a number of incidents like this, such as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers Bassist playing with boxing gloves to show that he was being made to mime, the show changed the policy and allowed performers to play live. This came at a time when dance music was hitting the the charts. The sounds on most dance tracks are hard to imitate live. In the later years of Top Of The Pops artists were allowed to decide for themselves if they wanted to play live or mime.
|
|
If you are signed to a label like Sony, Atlantic or RCA, you are going to have a lot of money pumped into your music, videos and advertisement. This means bigger and better exposure, more professional sounding tracks and more extravagant videos. Duran Duran were signed to EMI and had very 'artistic' music videos. This didn't mean their songs were any good. They were just over produced and it was evident they had a lot of money from the record company. The Young Lovers are a Power Punk band from California. They are signed to Indie Label Southpaw Records. Their music is Punk but with that easy listening feel to it. Their music videos are very under produced. As if they were given a video camera and the label said "Go record something, come back in an hour and we'll release whatever you have"
The big 4 record companies are EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony and Universal Music Group. These companies have a lot of money to splash about because they have all of the acts who make money from mainstream pop singles. The companies then buy out the small indie labels who are producing music for the love of music. Indie means Independent. These days the term is confusing because a true indie label is independent from any major label. In 1962 Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss set up A&M records. It was one of the most successful independent labels to date. It was started as a way to release Alpert's own recordings however, it didn't take long before they were releasing tracks by artists such as The Police, Carole King, Humble Pie and Procol Harum. In 1989 A&M was sold to Polygram records, who allowed Alpert and Moss to carry on with the management of the company. Polygram was then bought by Universal Music Group in 1998 who closed down A&M completely.
The big 4 record companies are EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony and Universal Music Group. These companies have a lot of money to splash about because they have all of the acts who make money from mainstream pop singles. The companies then buy out the small indie labels who are producing music for the love of music. Indie means Independent. These days the term is confusing because a true indie label is independent from any major label. In 1962 Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss set up A&M records. It was one of the most successful independent labels to date. It was started as a way to release Alpert's own recordings however, it didn't take long before they were releasing tracks by artists such as The Police, Carole King, Humble Pie and Procol Harum. In 1989 A&M was sold to Polygram records, who allowed Alpert and Moss to carry on with the management of the company. Polygram was then bought by Universal Music Group in 1998 who closed down A&M completely.
You Are Royalty
As I said before, music was created for enjoyment and creative expression, not for profit. The industry has turned music into a commodity, which is a marketable item to please customers. Song writers are owed royalties when their compositions are reproduced or covered, whether the reproduction is sold to the public or not. this reproduction can be in the form of a Tape, CD MP3 or Vinyl. Mechanical royalties are paid by the record company to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society who distribute them. The MCPS also collect Synchronization fees. These are royalties granted by the copyright holder to allow someone to use their music in media. This is typically adverts, Films and video games.
The internet changed the face of music. It allowed people to listen to music without leaving their homes. This is a good thing right? It's easy for consumers to get their music. If it's bought via the internet, the album cover will be a JPEG. This doesn't cost any money to reproduce but the record companies still take a 25% packaging fee. |
Streaming vs. Purchasing
Streaming revolutionized the music industry and the way we listen to music, mostly because of ease of use. instead of paying 99p per song, we can now pay £10 a month for unlimited songs on any device through streaming services such as spotify, Deezer and apple music, without using wifi. The only down side for us is that we do not permanently own the music. The industry has managed to make even more money from this by essentially renting out music and paying artists the bare minimum. The trouble with streaming is that it makes it easier for untalented artists to pay to be on these services. In the early days of records, such as the 1940's, many teenagers spent their weekly allowance on a record. This could be anything from a single to a whole album. It cost the industry money in order to produce and distribute the records. Nowadays, music is taken for granted. It can take seconds to download a song, so the struggle has gone, which means the excitement has gone.
Setting The Trends
Music has been helping set trends for decades. From fashion to socially. In the early 50's, when Elvis Presley first hit the radio stations, teenage girls loved him. This meant the boys wanted to be him. They slicked back their hair, wore his clothes and even started playing music. In A biography of Robert Plant by Paul Rees, Rees says that, as a teenager, Plant would dance around his room, practicing his Elvis impression. Watching Led-Zeppelin on stage, you can clearly see that his stage presence is heavily influenced by Elvis and other musicians such as Little Richard. Forwarding to the 1970's, Punk set a fashion trend that was all about carelessness. It started out with bands like The Ramones, simply wearing leather jackets, to The Sex Pistols and The Clash who stepped it up with crazy on-stage antics and an out-going look such as ripped T-shirts, trousers, piercings and boots. In the 90's, Rave music became increasingly popular with the rise in teens going to clubs taking drugs like ecstasy. This was when Trance, House, Techno and Drum & Bass sales started to rise. Not only did musicians make money out of this but the fashion industry took advantage by selling club wear and neon face paints. The most recent music trend to be influenced is Skate fashion. Rat Boy, a musician from Essex, takes indie pop music and adds a form of sing-rap. Another musician who does this is Jamie T. Both of these artists have developed songs, iconic in the skate scene. Whatever brands they wear become popular with their fans. In Rat Boy's music video for 'Fake ID' the camera focuses on his socks and shoes, to show what he's wearing.
|
|
Lobbying And Monopoly
The Guardian describes lobbyists as the paid persuaders, whose job is to influence the decisions of government. Lobbying has become more important since the copyright act. 1988, which gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways in which their material may be used. Lobbying affects the music industry because it allows them to have an input in laws that are put in place. It affects music makers and listeners because the law determines whether certain music is allowed in particular countries. A monopoly is the control of the supply in a commodity. You could say that the government has a monopoly over TV and radio stations because of the restrictions they put in place. In the Music industry, record companies have a monopoly because, generally, all record companies are subsidiaries of one of the 4 main record companies. This has an affect on the music because, as I said before, indie record labels would not necessarily be able to pump a lot of money into their bands, leaving them with raw talent and nothing else. Whereas, big record labels would be able to throw money by the truck load, giving an over produced, unnatural, edited track, and by buying the very few indie labels that the world has, the raw talent leaves.
Sponsorship
Almost every 'big named' band you see will have a sponsorship. In 2014 the rolling stones were sponsored by Jeep for their '14 On Fire' tour. U2's current sponsor is the computing company, SalesForce. Claiming that the band are at a point in their career in which they need to identify who their audience are, what devices their music is being listened to and on what platforms. The band, along with live events company Live Nation, will be looking to SalesForce to collect all of this data. In 2013 Ed Sheeran did a private gig in New York to promote the new Nokia Lumia 928 phone. Does it sound like all of these artists are doing this for love of humanity? Or does it sound as if they are being paid to advertise these companies? Glastonbury, on the other hand, does work with many organisations and has sponsors such as Wateraid. Wateraid is an international organisation whose mission is to transform the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people by improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. The Festival has been working with Wateraid for over 20 years. The organisation goes to the festival to improve recycling, hygiene and provide water to festival goers, explaining that millions are not so privileged as to get clean water. For bands, sponsorship's are a strategic money making scheme.
Conclusion
Since the early 20th century the music industry has been changing rapidly. It has changed the way we listen to music, the way we make music, the reason we make music and the way we view fame. We listen to music on so many different platforms and we can