How far do you think developments in technology have changed the way the music industry operates?

The music industry has been subject to change and development since the implementation of radical new media products within the last 10 years.
In the 1970's and 80's, the only way for illegal recordings to be made and distributed was for people to record the songs from the radio using a cassette.
These days however, due to the change in musical formats, such as mp3's, it is now possible for people to download music from filesharing websites illegally, without paying any money, it involves a simple download and the downloader has the song for free.
This makes the music industry corrupt because it is not possible for all the downloads to be tracked, therefore the charts that used to make a large impact on the music industry is no longer legit, meaning that even though a song has made it to the charts, it doesn't particularly mean it is the most popular at the time, it is just the song that most people have payed for instead of using an illegal download service.
Another way the development of technology has changed the music industry is the introduction to free online streaming sites, that allow a person to listen to the music online via a service such as Spotify or We7, the service is fully legal because the artist gets to decide whether their music is uploaded to it, however it may be that the artist does not particularly want their music to be listened to for free because it causes some people to not bother purchasing or downloading the music because they can listen to it as much as they want but they feel they have to because other artists are allowing their music to be streamed and gaining popularity. Another flaw with streaming is that it is not yet that portable, some services such as Youtube are accessible through portable internet such as using a mobile phone, but the files are not easily accessible on the move.
Sites such as Myspace provide this streaming option, The music label Universal Music Group in 2008 made it so that every artist under their label could only have a 30 second preview of their songs on Myspace to ensure that people were not just streaming their music and not downloading it. This in turn caused the popularity of Myspace to decrease because of the mass size of The Universal Music Group and the vast amount of artists under their name.
The introduction of Apple and Itunes to the music industry ensure that artists could have their music easily downloaded whenever the purchaser wanted too, any song of any album can be purchased for the average price of 79 pence, however artists may find that their entire albums are not downloaded and only particular songs are downloaded, this will cause for a loss of profit for the bands, because when an entire album is purchased it allows the band to gain much profit, even for songs that are not particularly enjoyed but are on the album, but now with the choice is buying single songs it allows the music fan to pick out songs and save money.
An advantage of Itunes is that it allows the artist to upload mini albums or "EP's" that would not usually be accessible to be purchased within shops, it also allows singles and new songs to be purchased and advertised more frequently and easily.
An artist does not particularly need a record label to be put on Itunes or other websites that allow download or music streaming such as Spotify.
The introduction of the internet in its own right allows people to follow bands progress on websites like Twitter and Facebook or even the artists own site, the internet is the best and most efficient way for artists to share their music, although it comes with its disadvantages.
To conclude, the developments in technology has improved the way the music industry operates, it makes it more efficient for bands to be followed and for their music to be purchased, although it comes with its major disadvantages, such as illegal downloading sites such as Limewire which has been closed down due to legal infringement, it can corrupt the way the charts are calculated and can stop bands from gaining money from their music.

Universal Music Group

The Universal Music group is the largest group of record labels in the recording industry. It is the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations.

It is owned by the company Vivendi, it's previous parent company however was Universal that owned the company from 1996 until 2006.
Currently the key people that own the company are: Lucian Grainge: CEO
                                                                               Doug Morris: Chairman

The company is based in New York City in America.
As stated before it is owned by the company Vivendi
 
The company vivendi produces products that will be shown on television, adverts and video games, this will allow the music that is produced under the Universal Music Group label to have easy access to other media products, this will ultimately help the artist/band achieve a higher fame status and gain money out of this. This music sharing strategy will ensure that both Artist, Record Label and Parent Company will gain a profit out of it, be it money or publicity.

Record Labels

Record Labels are used primarily to promote an artist or band. By using a record label the band or artist can have their music used within media products such as films, television programmes and/or promotional advertising.
The record label can also help the songs and the overall music of the artist develop, in style and also that of pleasing the masses, with the support of people that can do the research.
A record label is essentially a publishing company, it will ensure that the music is recorded and sold as an album and/or single.
Record labels are also a good thing in the music industry, because they manage to find and nurture talent, mainly give the head start to bands that are not confident in business, it allows bands to create a career out of their music.

The way in which Record labels sign deals is by giving the band an "advance", which means an amount of money to get the career going, then they will slowly be payed back with profit that the bands make, this gives bands that have signed with record labels a headstart over the bands that are trying to make it in the music industry independantly.
To gain money, Record Labels have Revenue Stream which means the income, the ways in which they make profit are by:
Selling music
Selling tickets to live gigs/concerts/festivals
Selling Merchandise that relate to the band
If the song is played on a television show, advert or film
Film soundtracks
Covers of the original song, done by a different artist
Video games.

In the music industry, there are "The Big Four" Record labels, these are

Universal Music which is the record label for artists like Eminem and Lady Gaga
EMI Music which is the record label for artists like Tinie Tempah and Katy Perry
Sony Music which is the record label for artists like Britney Spears and Foo Fighters
Warner Music Group is the record label for artists like Paolo Nutini and Green Day.

Music Research Introduction

AS Media Studies Unit G323 - exam

Section B: Institutions and Audiences

For Section B, we shall be studying the music industry. We shall focus on case studies of two record labels within the contemporary music industry which target British audiences, including their patterns of production, distribution, marketing and consumption by audiences. This will be accompanied by study of the strategies used by record labels to counter the practice of file sharing and their impact on music production, marketing and consumption.

Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to contemporary media institutions, as well as, the nature of audience consumption and the relationship between audiences and institutions. In addition candidates should be familiar with:

·         the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;

·         the importance of cross media convergence and synergy, in production, distribution and marketing;

·         the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, marketing and exchange;

·         the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;

·         the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;

·         the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international and global institutions;

·         the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.