Music Industry Essay

1018 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How piracy affects the music industry

The music business entered a dramatic change in the 21st century. These changes appear in the way of how people access and consume music. According to Hull, Hutchison and Strasser (2011) the music business has developed throughout three stages. While moving from the agricultural age, where the music business made its revenues through live performances, troubadours and patronage, the industrial age introduced new innovations that were assumed to be associated with long-term economic growth. Commencing the year 1950 sound recordings experienced a drastic raise in sales by an average of 20% a year (Krasilovsky and Shemel, 2007). While the music industry was dominated by six major record lables (Time Warner, Disney, Vivendi Universal, Viacom, Bertelsmann, and News Corp.) (Hull, Hutchison and Strasser, 2011), further growth in the industry has been recorded in the 1970’s, where record sales “rose from less than $2 billion at the beginning of the decade to over $4 billion in 1978”, which took a sharp turn entering the Depression around the middle of the 20th century (Krasilovsky and Shemel, 2007:5). With the invention of the Compact Disc (CD) in 1984 the music industry was able to increase their record revenues again surpassing $4 billion. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), profits in 1988 increased up to $6.25 billion (Krasilovsky and Shemel, 2007). On one hand CD’s have proved to be very successful invention as it indicated that consumers are willing to pay for increased quality of goods and services. However on the other hand it had introduced issues relating piracy. Illegal reproduction of analog phonograph records was a relative harmless issue at this time, as the quality of sound would reduce by ea... ... middle of paper ... ... well as a time trend dummy, which equals 1. The theorists found evidence to support their aforementioned study claiming “the structural change in the demand for recorded music” (Stevans and Session, 2004:316). The time series model shows a decrease from 2.25% to 0.77% in regards to the growth rate on how the buyer consumes recorded music presumably taking the increase of distribution means and all other factors in consideration. With this model Stevans and Session proved the link between music downloads and the decreasing demand for CD sales after 2000 and they also predict that copyright laws potentially has an impact on reducing price elasticity of demand, which forces digital distributors to lower prices. Consumers would then be able to benefit “not only from price stability, but also an enhanced market for all music formats” (Stevans and Session, 2004: 322).

Show More
Related

  • Benny Goodman's Jazz, And The Swing Era

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the 1930’s began, the effects of the great depression still ravaged the United States, which in turned caused a dramatic change in the music industry. Membership in the musicians’

    Read More

  • Let There Be Light: Did Punk Rock Really Make a Difference

    3161 Words  | 7 Pages

    The music industry can trace its roots to the 18th century when classical composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sought commissions from the church or aristocracies by touring to promote their music (Boerner). By the early 20th century, recorded collections of songs were available for purchase for home listening. Towards the middle of the century, record album production had become the norm for getting new music to the masses and album sales had replaced sheet-music sales as a measure of popularity, with the first gold-recor...

    Read More

  • Mp3: A Boundary or a Bridge?

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the newest, most exciting and innovative ways to get music these days is not in the mall and not at a huge mega-sized electronic store, it's not even by a mail order CD club. It’s the computer. It sits conveniently on a desk and now allows access to every imaginable genre of music, twenty-four hours a day, rain or shine, snow or sleet, in the comfort of your own home. Technology is changing the way we listen to music. Now downloading a Mp3 from the Internet is a lot easier than going to the store and buying an overpriced CD. A near CD quality digital recording of music, Mp3s are digital computer files compressed to make them readily available over the Internet. It seems the high prices, new technology, and availability are causing most music lovers to turn to this new form of music media to combat their expensive addiction to compact discs. It has become so simple to search out and download music that more and more people are finding it favorable to just copy their music to a recordable CD (CD-R). That would mean people could, from their own home, create illegal copies of the copyrighted material at or near industrial compact disc quality. Further adding to consumer accessibility, manufacturers now produce portable MP3 players , so now the need to buy CD-R’s is eliminated and you can just...

    Read More

  • MP3 File Sharing Hurts America

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... released in January that surveyed 1,358 Internet users in late fall found the number of Americans downloading music dropped by half from six months earlier, with 17 million fewer people doing it nationwide. I find that to be an impressive figure.

    Read More

  • CD Pricing in the Recorded Music Industry

    1903 Words  | 4 Pages

    The recording industry is highly competitive with its profits based in its ability to attract and retain artist who sell hit records. Advertising, promotion and publicity for its artist are central elements in a music company's marketing program and they represent a sizeable amount of the company's costs. Universal has more market share because it has more hit artist and a larger music catalog than any other music recording company. Because of these facts, Universal is susceptible to the most losses. Universal made the decision to slash its CD prices in the US by up to 31.5 percent in the US, not to increase market share but to persuade consumers to start buying CD's again (Universal, 2003). Since the advent of new technology allowing consumers to obtain music in non-traditional means, actual CD sales in the US had been on a decline since 2000 (Kerin, 2007). In fact, four of the major five record companies reported losses in the first half of 2003. Universal is considered a heavy hitter US with a market share of 29.4% while EMI ranks in the bottom of the five major record labels with a mere 9.8% of US market share. EMI was the only company that did not report losses the beginning of 2003 due to major reorganization efforts.

    Read More

  • The Change in the Music Industry

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Internet—as it did for almost everything—has radically changed the way people get music. The Internet has cut into the music industry's profits. It reduced the demand for CDs, increased the interest in singles and let people decide whether they want to pay for the new Prince album. This alone could be offset if all of the people pirating music would go to their favorite artists' shows. However, the hard economy has rapidly cut into people's ability to spend on luxury items and concerts rank right up there with sports in terms of practicality.

    Read More

  • Baroque Era Music Compared to Modern Rock

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pfanner, Eric. "Music Industry Sales Rise, and Digital Revenue Gets the Credit." Business Day Technology. The Nre York Times, 26 Feb 2013. Web. 21 Mar 2014.

    Read More

  • Business And Social Norms In The Music Industry

    101 Words  | 1 Pages

    The music industry is about selling the recordings and the performances of music among many individuals and organizations that works with musicians. The music industry has both the charm and the organizational architecture to affect the business and the cultural trends. There are millions of listeners and followers to the products of the music industry. The opinions of these listeners always change depending on what they see or hear. The music business or industries have been influencing generations of recording artists, business professionals and consumers. The music industries have been reinforcing questionable subject matter, music lyrics and business and social norms.

    Read More

  • Pop Music Essay

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    This study demonstrated that pop music influences happiness mood. As hypothesized participants in the pop music category were influence by the music and seem happier. The analysis revealed that participants in the rock and classical music categories didn’t have an effect in their mood. The results for rock and classical music did not supported the hypothesis, which rock music causes a person to have an aggressive mood, and classical music will lead to a calmer mood. The data support the primacy effect pop music results supported the hypothesis that pop music leads to a happier mood. The results from this data support from previous literature research such as the pop category. The results could also interpret as support for (Hargreaves, 1999). People make their music preferences based on the emotional state they are in (Hargreaves, 1999). The analysis revealed that pop music scored higher than students who had rock or classical. The implications for this study are to examine if music influence mood in a negative or positive aspect). As an outcome happiness mood correlated with pop music . There wasn’t no effect between rock music and aggressive mood. Classical music didn’t have a relationship between classic music and calm mood. The results of this study wouldn’t be able to support (Jordana Mena, 2007). This consists of classical music being composed with different emotions based on the key and time signature it is on. If the classical piece is written in a higher key then they saw different mood responses than the classical pieces written in a low key (Jordan Mena, 2007). This study has provided that music is more than just a piece, of a lyric, beat, or instrument it has been proven that music can help people ...

    Read More

  • MP3, Amateur Musicians and Music Distribution

    2456 Words  | 5 Pages

    Abstract:    Relatively little attention has been given to the effect of digital music on amateur musicians and music distribution. Here, I examine the revolution on the horizon-sites such as MP3.com herald the eventual bridging of the gap between artist and listener while shrinking the record companies. In this paper I examine two such sites that host independent and labeled artists alike: the larger, better-known MP3.com and the smaller, independent, non-profit Songfight. I examine how they each handle the challenges of digital music and their attraction for artists while concluding that a change in the recording industry as we know it is forthcoming.

    Read More

  • Music Production Essay

    1648 Words  | 4 Pages

    Music production is more than just a musical program; it is a duty that requires personal experience with music and artistic direction. Observing producers in the studio, their creativeness comes out in different ways even depending o their task. The artisanship of music production has come a long way ever since the heavily involved recording equipment has been massively changing. Every artwork has countless of individual people who have changed the way the art may be applied to the field, leaving behind their legacy to influence all aspects of music. Music producers are always overlooked when it comes to working with musicians or bands, but what people do not know is that they are the backbone of the production but are unseen to the public. There are several of paths on becoming a producer, like being self-taught or going to a vocational school. If you plan to advance as a producer, it will be a rough experience trying to ascend to a higher position. A music producer is the main person that manages the whole album on a record, and is responsible for helping the artist complete his work.

    Read More

  • Technology's Negative Effects On The Music Industry

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    The music industry impacts the lives of people from around the world. With the implementation of technology, the influence of the music industry has spread to affect anyone with access to technology. Streaming services have contributed to the increased popularity of music. While there are positive effects to being able to stream music and have multiple ways of listening to it, the music industry suffers from the lack of revenue and illegal activity associated with technology. Technology has had both positive and negative effects on the music industry by affecting how people access music and how music is produced

    Read More

  • Pop Music Essay

    625 Words  | 2 Pages

    Popular music is any music since industrialization in the mid-1800’s and is preferred by the middle class. It covers many genres such as rock, country, R&B, hip-hop, and rap.

    Read More

  • Popular Music Essay

    1892 Words  | 4 Pages

    Music has been many different things to people, an escape, a revolution, an experience, a feeling, a message, a memory, a single moment, peace, class, etc. Music has played a large role in the lives of many. The story of music and it’s evolution is beautiful, from ancient melodies being plucked on a harp, to the british invasion and the popular revolution. Music has changed, and it has effected so much. In the recent decades popular music has manipulated humanity into acting inappropriately.

    Read More

  • The Music Industry

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    Steve Jones in the article "Music and the Internet" suggests that popular music as well as academic articles relating to popular music were created and distributed by people who didn’t completely understand the idea of the "music industry." He ultimately suggests that today compared to the introduction of popular music, a growing number of consumers are using the Internet to attain music. The internet has drastically changed the distribution systems also creating many ethical problems that weren't found in the music industry before the internet. Because the internet started making a presence in almost every single business, it was almost no question that the internet is bringing about some changes in the music industry; a billion dollar industry. Steve Jones ultimately knew the inversion of the internet would create dominant change in the music industry; one that many popular music artists during the early years didn't think was possible. The article was written in a lot information paragraphs that gave insight to the extreme lack of strong distribution during the early times of popular music compared to modern day. Strong and insightful syntax showed the way many musicians felt that about the way their music was performed and distributed during these times, but had nothing to do about it.

    Read More

More about Music Industry Essay

Open Document