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

Throughout recent years there have been huge technological changes which have completely morphed the way in which the music industry operates. New ways have been created for artists to distribute their music to the audience, as well as new ways that the audience can get hold of this music.

                By going back just a few generations, it’s easy to see how much the music industry really have changed through the technology used. Records used to be the only way to physically buy a song or album, or if you wanted to just listen to the music you’d have to wait for it to be played on the radio, or pay a small amount of money to choose it to be played from a jukebox. After this the arrival of the cassette came as a smaller form of being able to play songs or albums, and also being able to record and keeps songs from the radio. A few years later, the CD was introduced, and this was the new way of purchasing music, and being able to play it at home in a CD player or on the go on a walkman. CD’s are still used and bought today, but is in huge competition with the new favourite of downloading music from the internet, either legally and paying for it, or illegally and not.

                With the use of new technology, the way in which people listen to and get hold of music is completely different. Instead of buying a record or even a CD, the majority of people now buy their music from the internet and get an instant download of that song or album. To listen to music, these tracks can then be saved onto an mp3 player/iPod, computer, or even onto your mobile phone. This also means that this music can be listened to on the go, pretty much anywhere. Music can also be streamed straight from the internet on social sites such as MySpace, or even through programmes like Spotify.

                However, these new improvements in technology have also increased piracy in the music industry. Illegal downloads happen more and more, as new software is continually being produced to get round the barriers or having to pay for music. With programmes like Limewire and UTorrent around, it’s easier than ever to download music for free. This affects the music industry immensely everyday as it means the income to the industry is an extremely smaller number than it would be if no illegal downloading took place. According to the ‘Drowned In Sound’ website, the music industry only made 5% of their potential sales in 2008 due to illegal downloading. This is around a £48 billion loss in just one year.

                When it comes to the actual recording of music, and promoting whilst an artist is still small, this can be done in whole new ways that didn’t exist before. Many young and upcoming artists don’t have the money to be able to record in a studio any time they want to record a track. This can be overcome by purchasing programmes to be used on a computer like Logic or even just the basic GarageBand on a Mac computer. This will record their music and save it as a file for them to be able to spread to try and gain some recognition. The process of promoting their music has had a lot of technological changes over recent years too. Bands can now create profiles on various different social networks to keep their fans up to date with any news that they want to share, as well as being able to upload their recorded tracks for potential fans to hear. Another way of promoting is posting videos on YouTube. Many artists have gained huge recognition by posting various different videos on this site, and some have even gone on to be extremely well-known celebrities. An example of this would be Justin Bieber, as he posted videos on YouTube, and was discovered by his now manager Scooter Braun as well as Usher.

                There are still some traditional ways in which the music industry operates, and technology has only changed these ways slightly. One of them being the weekly chart, and the system of having a ‘number 1’ and its large recognition. There has been an official chart weekly since 15 February 1969, with the most bought single that week going to number 1. However in recent years, since the download of music became available, downloads also started to count towards the chart in 2004. Another factor that is still carried out in the music industry today is the radio, and for the audience to be able to listen to music on the radio. Since the 1930s, music has been played and listened to through the radio, and popularity of this medium has been kept high ever since. Technology has interfered with radio to a small extent by providing digital radio stations, but this was no threat, as if anything it increased the popularity of radio because of the enhance quality this gave the listener.

                Overall, I think that technology has had a huge impact on the way the music industry operates, as the internet and downloads have completely taken over and changed the way music is bought and listened to. Unfortunately the changes aren’t always good as you get things like piracy that come with this, but the digital system of buying and downloading tracks or albums has never been easier, and can be listened to from a large range of different places.

Record Labels Notes

What does a record label do?

When an artist is signed by a record label, this means that this artist now has support to fully enter the music industry, and try to make it big.

• The record label has advances in the marketing/sales of the music industry, and therefore help the artist to set up a full-time career in the industry.
• They also help to exploit the artists tracks, and pay their royalties that they have earned. As well as this, the record label will usually pay for the recording and mixing of albums, but are then paid this money back from the sales of the album.
• They would also pay a lot of the fees for the artist to tour, as this would help them to raise their profile as well as sales.
• Labels would also try and find other ways of exploiting the bands records, for example, being used in films or TV ads.

AS Media Studies Unit G323

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.