The Moment Of Complexity In The Music Industry

The spread of music through the internet has democratized the industry, allowing artists equal chances to reach out to listeners in the market – or so we may believe. Then it might be startling to hear that a piece sung by Kanye West, a popular American hip-hop musician, went unnoticed by the public for a significant amount of time. The time the song called “Gone” reached its peak was at 2013, eight years after it was publicly released. The sudden increase in its popularity was due to its usage as the background music for a YouTube video, which implies the song was capable of gaining popularity as long as it is properly advertised. If such is the case with a popular artist like Kanye West, then it is not difficult to speculate that there are

The interaction between producers and consumers in the market was as simple as buying a physical copy of artists’ album or going to their performances. Yet from the late 20th century up until now, there have been huge shifts in the way the music industry functions as a whole. As Mark Taylor states in his book, The moment of complexity: Emerging network culture, society has entered “the moment of complexity” in which things are changing faster than ever before (Taylor 3). He states that “we are … incarnations of worldwide webs and global networks whose complexity is fraught with danger as well as opportunity” (Taylor 17). This is not an overstatement even if “the modern music industry” replaces the word “we”. The unconventional interruption of consumers, triggered by the development of technology, has brought the long-lasting tension between labels and independent artists to a completely new level, which offers the possibility of danger and opportunity for both groups. In contrary to conventional beliefs that one side benefits over the other, this essay claims that there is no clear winner in the complex system. What matters is a successful sales strategy, which is achievable by both independent artists and recording labels. Moreover, viewing the music industry as a well-defined representation of a general market, one will be able to

Yet which group of suppliers, independent artists or massive recording companies, was affected more by the change remains debatable. To answer the question, Gary Graham, the writer of “The transformation of the music industry supply chain: A major label perspective”, states that the most significant change occurred due to internet is the elimination of “the need for physical distribution and retail of products” (Graham 1094). One way the major record labels are trying to overcome the change is by purchasing equity stocks of arising different music subscription services; having their own subscription services which consumers pay to listen to music has become a new source of revenue for companies. However, the analysis of the text claims that what is lost from internet is greater than what is gained. Due to the break of barrier of retail, which will facilitate more producers to enter the market, “the future may look bleak for the major record labels” (Graham 1088). Although record labels have traditionally been the dominant force in the supply chain of music industry, the technology brought a huge