The Music Industry

The Music Industry 

The music industry is currently build upon the foundations of the companies and individuals who make their money through both the creation and sale of music. Consisting of both individuals & organisations, the individuals being the musicians who compose and perform their music or music written or composed for them; and the organisations being  :

The companies and the professionals who create and sell the recorded music, for example : music publishers, producers, studios, engineers, record labels ( The brand aassociated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos, (commonly a company) that will manage the brands & trademarks; coordinate the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and copyright laws and also conducts talent scouting and the development of new artists), retail stores, online music stores, and performance rights organisations (they basically deal with the copyright issues, and holders + parties who want to use copyrighted works publicly); The people that present live music performances for instance booking agents, promoters, music venues owners, road crew (The technicians & support personnel who travel with a band on tour), talent managers (Or band/artist manager helps the company or individual progress through their professional career in the entertainment industry), business managers, entertainment lawyers (people who provide legal services for the entertainment industry). People who broadcast music for example : satellite, internet and broadcast radio and then of course all of the journalists; educators; musical instrument manufacturers; tabloid writers, columnists, website designers and so on.

The modern day industry appeared around the 1950’s when records had replaced sheet music (printed as supposed to recorded) as the largest seller in the music business. This was when the term "the music industry" became interchangeable within the commercial world, with the phrase "the recording industry".

The majority of the musical market (for recorded music) is dominated by x3 major corporate labels:

1.) the French-owned Universal Music Group, - which is a major global music company owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi. Universal Music Group also owns Universal Music Publishing Group, which is the x2 biggest music publishing company in the world!

2.) The Japanese-owned Sony Music Entertainment - which is the largest global recorded music company of the "big three" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation.

 3.) The US-owned Warner Music Group - Is a major global music and entertainment conglomerate based in NYC . It’s the biggest US owned music corporation globally & it is one of the 'big three' recording companies which are basically the three largest companies in the worldwide music industry. The company runs some of the most successful recording labels in the world, including : Warner Bros. Records + Atlantic Records.

In relation to the control of live music, the market monopolised by Live Nation who is the largest promoter of music and also the largest music venue owner. Live nation is an American entertainment company who formed from the merger of Live Nation and Ticket master. However because of digital distribution & the music video in the online age,  the largest  retailer of music is now i digital:Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store. (Though the x2 largest companies in the industry are Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV Music Publishing.) This newly popular means of distributing & marketing products has created a wide web for artists to spread their music & fan base at the same time as lowering their costs. 

 ß US market shares in the music industry

 ß World market shares in the music industry 

Record Lables - Financing, Management & control 
In terms of costs in the industry (of music videos that is) the artist/bands label (could be independent or an international one) will be the one who covers all of the direct costs involved in the recording & promoting & marketing of a band, which of course include their music video.Though this authoritative control over  artists success means that they often have to surrender all rights to the music they create, their style & their star image. The label then makes their profit from the artists  album sales, performances sales, download sales & merchandising sales and then will distribute a portion of this money back to the artist. Within the industry most recording artists have now become wholly reliant upon the support of record labels to broaden their consumer base into the mass market and sell as many of their albums as possible on the widest possible scale. (and to be promoted / heard on mp3, radio, ipod, youtube, TV, interviews, merchandise, positive media coverage, music videos etc). Artists are contracted with their record label and this either provides for the artist to deliver completed recordings to the label, or for the label to be involved with the recording process as well. They are also in charge of selecting producers, recording studios, additional musicians, and the songs that will be recorded. The relationship between record labels & artists is frictional and many artists  albums are completely altered / censored by the labels before they are released to the public for example their song lyrics will being edited, the albums artwork / titles can be tweaked and so on.  Their choices are based upon commercial success, something with can cause rifts between the label & the artists who wants to stay true to themselves. Though because of the technological advances and means of distribution & promotion via the Internet their  part is starting to loose its necessity. In recent years artists have become more easily able to freely distribute their own material through web radio, peer to peer file sharing, youtube, facebook, twitter and so on (for little cost or sometimes none at all). In fact some major artists such as Bigger artists such Radio are moving towards cutting out their label all together which of course if this becomes more common will cause major issues for the industry as a whole. 

(The major record labels)