background to the music industry

Background to music industry

• Dominated by 4 transnational corporations
– Universal
– BMG
– Warner Bros
– Sony/EMI
• Known as ‘The Majors’

• Most majors also own, or licence, a string of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre

• These companies are known as ‘major-independents’

• Finally, there are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors
• These companies often concentrate on a small number of artists, within specialised niches in the industry
• Known as ‘independents’

• It is misleading to see the industry simply as a ‘hierarchy’, dominated by the majors
• A better description is a ‘web’ of companies, whose connections allow:
– smaller companies to gain access to bigger markets
– bigger companies to gain access to new artists and movements in popular music

In turn, most record companies organise themselves internally into several key areas:
– Artists and Repertoire (A&R)
– Marketing/Artist Development
– Promotions
– Legal
– Financial

• The industry as a whole has a complex relationship with a number of different media

• Radio, TV, Print media, Film, New Media

• Synergy and symbiosisMedia video

Expansion of background to music industry

 Musical taste can be a controversial topic- almost to the point of tribalism.

 It is contentious because it defines and often signifies personality and lifestyle. Musical taste is about the way you dress, speak and sometimes act.


 However, all commentators agree that Music and its trends - sit at the epicentre of popular culture.

 Not only to the extent that an individual can derive a sense of identity but to the extent the global community can be changed by Musical Trends

Key tensions

 It is this ‘dynamic tension’ that exists between the artistic and commercial forces of underpins the success of this vast media business.

 A tension between the organic and synthetic

 Another feature to consider is the music industry ‘synergetic connections’ with other media forms – this codependence with other media means that a ‘mutual reliance’ can be productive and but also risky.