How Is the Music Industry Transforming - Essay Example

< Changing Working Practices in the Music Industry> by Abstract An essay which details the changing practices in the music industry from the perspective of a few important cultural theories. Changing Working Practices in the Music Industry It is quite evident right now in the United States and throughout the world that the complexion of modern contemporary music is changing. Before the digital revolution completely transformed the musical landscape, music bands and artists used to get their major chunk of revenue through the sale of their albums and live concerts. But presently, the availability of compact discs has drastically reduced the profit making potential of the artists. A compact disc nowadays sells for $10.00 whereas the shirt having the logo of a rock band can sell for $20.00. Therefore, the new mode of revenue of artists and bands is merchandising. One such case in point is the deal between the record company EMI and singing sensation Robbie Williams. The $80 million deal which was signed in 2002 allowed the record company to share the profits during his world tours and his merchandising profits. According to a music business consultant, in the year 2010 the sale of albums will contribute only 30% of the total profits, whereas the other 70% would comprise of merchandise sales as well as sales from musical tours. Keith Negus (1999, p.22) comments ‘While portable CD players, Walkmans and car stereos have made recorded music increasingly mobile, the products of the film industry must still be watched in the cinema or at home on a video machine.’ Four of the major record companies in the world are Warner Music, Sony/BMG, Universal and EMI. For a long time, they had monopolized the music industry but now the trend seems to be changing. On such example is the band Enter Shikari, which has released their debut album under its own record label. Many such examples abound in the music industry, and this is making the major record companies see red. EMI and Universal has already started to retrench, EMI having laid-off almost half of its employees. Keith Negus (1999, p.15) states ‘That the major entertainment corporations are continually seeking to control and thus maximize their profits from cultural production is a point that has been repeatedly emphasized by political economists.’ The only glimmer of hope of the major record companies is the potential of earning profits from the burgeoning internet download market. Some experts believe that record companies tying up with major download sites will help the record companies to stay in the profit books for a longer time. It’s clear now where the music industry is drifting to. According to the American music industry trade body RIAA, the number of paid downloads from internet sites is on the rise, and the RIAA estimates that the global sales from paid downloads would cross a few billion dollars in the coming years. The online music industry is also slated to be worth almost $7 billion in 2011. The music industry at the outset was marked by a typical mechanization in the music production process. The workers in the music business were engaged in making songs which will have a commercial value. That’s the reason why the number of critics described music production with analogies like ‘Assembly Line’ and ‘Production Line’. The production of music was something very similar to the production of movies or the production of novels. The stages in such productions were similar to the stages of industrial production, and terms such as bolting together of melodies, the shifting of products from musicians to the public, the standardization of rhythm and lyrics, or the usage of mass production tools were very similar to that of industrial manufacturing. Hence, music production was also termed as a Fordist method of production. Fordism is basically the kind of production which was popularized by Henry Ford, the automobile mogul. The music industry also sold its music products to various segments of customers. Post- Fordism is a concept wherein there are shifts from focusing on mass produced objects or materials to producing materials which caters to a number of sub-classes and segments. One of the best examples of Post- Fordism in the music industry was the Beatles. The Beatles proved once and for all that several eclectic musical styles could be integrated in the songs, which did not hinder the popularity or mass appeal of the songs. The Beatles could seamlessly integrate rhythm and blues, pop, hard rock, as well as folk music. The Beatles thus spearheaded the contemporary music industry in the nineteen sixties. However in the nineteen seventies, there were groups that specialized in a particular music genre. Artists such as The Carpenters (Ballads), Led Zeppelin (Hard Rock) and BB King (Blues) emerged. In some cases, music was becoming more and more militant, while some genres such as soft rock and hip hop were finding a niche market. Thus, the Post Fordism in the music industry helped diversify the mass produced music which dominated the nineteen fifties. In the 21st century, Post Fordism has been taken to a brand new level. With the advent of digitization of music, the youth culture is further divided into numerous sub groups. Digitization was first started with the invention of the compact disc or the CD. It was during the early 1980’s that the compact disc hit the market. Prior to the compact disc revolution, the music industry depended largely on audio tapes and prior to audio tapes, the vinyl LP’s. Keith Negus (1999, p.152) states ‘This CD, put together in a careful way with attention to historical and political detail, is a deliberate attempt to challenge the music industry labels that are used to classify creativity, divide living culture and separate social experiences.’ One of the inherent advantages of compact discs was that it was comparatively cheap to produce. This allowed compact discs to spread beyond the U.S. boundaries very fast. At the outset, compact discs were the only physical storage medium for digital music data. This limitation was utilized by the big record companies. However with the passage of time, record companies began to realize that the digital format was eventually going to help the customers but not the record companies. Until the nineteen nineties, most record companies had a hold over the music albums and the artists. But with the coming of the Internet revolution, downloading and uploading of digital data such as music files in mp3 formats became the order of the day, with online music downloading companies such as Napster leading the way for another digital revolution in the music industry. Moreover, it was increasingly popular to purchase customized CDs containing only the songs which the buyer wants to listen. In the 21st century, digitization has come to such a level that allows customers to purchase online CDs containing their favorite songs. The digital distribution of this decade has really taken off, allowing customers to purchase individual songs rather than albums when buying their favorite music. Journalists and critics of the music industry believe that the digitized music sales would eventually allow small and medium sized record companies as well as talented singers without much financial backing to succeed in the music industry. Some of the recent songs which have shot up in popularity are 10,000 Reasons and Poisonous Perfume; songs such as these are produced by small recording companies, which go to show the current trend in the digitized music industry. What’s more, the age of the single CD releases is here. This means that the risks involved in recording is greatly reduced for the recording companies. Additionally, the age of digitization also allows recording companies to easily manage professional singers, as the cost is drastically reduced. Andrew Keen (2007, p.29) states ‘Every free music or video upload is one less sale of a CD or DVD, meaning one less royalty for the artist who created it’ Globalization is today’s catch word. Globalization hit the world in the late twentieth century and has since then changed the way the world views business and entertainment. Globalization in in U.S. has given people from the entertainment industries such as film directors and music record companies an opportunity to create extra income with the least investment. Particularly for the music industry, the advent of globalization has caused a division in the music labels. A record company might have a domestic label which handles the marketing of music catering to the domestic market, and the international label for the international audience. The international marketing department for the large record companies is now growing at the brisk pace. From the late 1980’s, record companies began to realize the potential of international markets and thus the globalization discourses were occasionally deployed to the employees. Globalization paved the way for several more musical genres, and presently it is estimated that about 150 popular musical genres exist in the world today. With so much diversity, music companies now need to make a proper evaluation of the global market with tools such as rhythms, melodies, the instruments, voices and tempos. It also entails the international marketing team to use relevant images for maximizing profits of their albums in a particular region. Also, record companies need to be aware of the political volatility of certain regions of the world, which would eventually prevent them from incurring huge losses. Additionally, domestic markets have different administrative and copyright laws. This implies that certain regions will be better global markets and certain regions would not. For example, in Japan, the price of CD’s are high and Japan has stern copyright laws, which makes it a good global market for US record labels. But in case of India, where cheap CD’s are available and copyright laws are lax, the market for US record labels are not that profitable. The music industry has also been affected by neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism is that policy which re-regulates the cultural and economic practices for better serving corporate interests. Neo-liberalism also implies that the society uses technology more often for solving its problems. It is believed that the entertainment industries, especially the music industry have been equally affected by neo-liberalism as it is by globalization. Before the nineteen eighties, television, radio and the music industry were dominated by domestically owned enterprises. During the nineteen eighties, the import markets for media such as films and music rose dramatically. It was during this time that local commercial enterprises began showing interest in the music industry. Earlier, the media systems were mainly national but these days, the media systems have become more driven by the commercial-media markets. Neo-liberalism has created a sort of oligopoly in the music industry, just as neo-liberalism had created oligopoly in the automotive and oil industries at the beginning of the twentieth century. Neo-liberalism also has created a number of U.S. media firms which are moving across the world at swift speeds. These media companies are trying to tap in the growth potential of markets abroad before their competitors do. In 1993, the U.S. artists had generated more than 60% of profits from sales in regions outside the U.S, which was due to the marketing techniques used by their record labels. Hence it is evident that the music industry is now dominated by private enterprises and the transfer of power from the public enterprises is what defines neo-liberalism in today’s music industry. Andrew Keen (2007, p.107) argues ‘Year by year, the entire music industry, which has brought us classic recordings of everyone from the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The Clash to Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Callas, is being strangled by one of the most brazen mass larcenies in history.’ Yet another theory which can be applied on the current music industry is convergence. In many facets and many segments of the music industry, that lines which earlier used to divide each of them is gradually fading, making convergence a stark reality in the music industry today. Convergence can be broadly classified into three categories in the music industry. They are convergence of playback and recording, convergence of consumer markets and producer markets and the convergence of the latest computer tools used in the music industry. One of the best examples of the playback and recording convergence are the newest music gadgets such as the iPod. Disc jockeys are perfect examples of consumer and producer convergence whereas cutting edge computer software such as ProTools and Radar are good examples of computer tools convergence. All in all, the music industry is always in the process of transformation. What seems new to the listeners as well as the producers of music today is bound to become outdated in the next few decades. And one of the best methods to comprehend how the global music industry functions is by using cultural, economic and social theories such as digitization, globalization, neo-liberalism, post-Fordism and convergence. Bibliography Negus, K (1999) Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, (London, Routledge). Keen, A (2007) The Cult of the Amateur, (London, Nicholas Brealey Publishing). Negus, K & Pickering, M (2004) Creativity, Communication and cultural value, (London, Sage) especially Ch 3 Ross, A. (2008) ‘The New Geography of Work: Power to the Precarious?’ Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 25(7–8): 31–49 (Sage, London) Ross, A. (2009) Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labour in Precarious Times (New York, New York University Press) Hartley, J. (ed) (2005) The Creative Industries (Oxford, Blackwell) Banks, j. & Humphreys, S. (2008) ‘The Labour of User Co-Creators: Emergent Social Network Markets?’ Convergence Vol 14 (401) (London, Sage) Read More