Institutions

The Music Industry:-

The Music Industry is the organisation of the various activities associated with performing, recording and distributing music. The UK music industry has more musical compositions than anywhere in the world except for the US. In 2205, the top 10 album chart of the whole year had 3 British artists in it, Coldplay, Robbie Williams and James Blunt. The music industry has developed in relation to the concept of property rights. The original composition of the music (including the lyrics) is a form of ‘intellectual property’ (IP) and the composer is entitled to the same set of legal rights as any other form of author with royalties, payable each time music is performed or the composition copied. There are several different rights, each of which can be sold outright, assigned to an agent to collect or licensed for a variety of uses.
(http://www.mediamagazine.org.uk/)

There has never before been a company that has fully monopolised the music industry. Apple, however are close to doing this, they have control over the technology side of the music industry, thanks to the iPod and iTunes. These new technologies have allowed Apple to create products like the iPod Touch and the iPhone. It has not taken long for this new technology in the music industry to develop, it has taken merely 3/4 years for Apple to develop their iPod from a black and white screen classic iPod to a pencil-thin, colour and touch screen iPod Touch. Apple have helped themselves develop new ways in which they can reach their audience through their deal with the sports brand, Nike.

"You don’t just take iPod nano on your run. You let it take you. Music is your motivation. But what if you want to go further? Thanks to a unique partnership between NIKE and Apple, your iPod nano becomes your coach. Your personal trainer. Your favourite workout companion. Introducing Nike + iPod."
(http://www.apple.com/uk/ipod/nike/)

Above is the advertisement campaign for the alliance between Nike and Apple, together they act like a personal trainer with a "nike+iPod sports kit" which is inserted in the shoe and sends information to the iPod which can then inform the consumer of how hard and fast they have been training. This has been a new way of appealing to Apple and Nike customers and gives Apple a broader range of consumers.

The fact that Apple iTunes may have monopolised the music download industry is in doubt as a new download business is coming through, Tesco Digital. When Tesco Digital launches next month it will have 3.3 million tracks available for download with 1.6 million in MP3 format in order to target MP3 player users and iPod users. The site will later expand to downloadable movies, TV shows, and computer games. Downloads are said to be "competitively priced", as usual with Tesco, but the price will vary on certain tracks.

Graham Harris, the Tesco commercial director, said: "We wanted to create an exciting and easy-to-use entertainment shop that Tesco customers of all ages and technical ability can use and trust. We're starting out with a comprehensive music offering, but customers can expect downloadable TV and films as well as games to buy very soon."
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/15/tesco.supermarkets)

Record Labels:-

A record label is a company which markets sound recordings and music videos in the music industry. They also manage brands and trademarks coordinates the production, distribution, manufacture, promotion and the enforcement of copyright protection in their part of the music industry. There are four major record labels: Warner Music Group, EMI, Song BMG and Universal Music Group, these four record companies take up around 70% of the world music industry and 80% of the American music industry. Companies outside of the "big four" are usually called "independents" or "indie" groups.

The Arctic Monkeys are an example of a band who use "indie" record labels, an article in the Guardian by Matt Keating in 2006, explains how the Arctic monkeys didn't use the promotion of a massive record label, "all the band did was burn their demo on CD-Rs, gave those out at gigs and then fans fileshared the hell out of them." This shows how the internet has been able to be a publicist for bands like the Arctic Monkeys who rely on "word of mouth" via social-networking and the internet, this has been successful for the Arctic Monkeys, shown by their websites being the number 1 band website (1.90% of the market share). In the case of the Arctic Monkeys, social-networking has had a huge impact on the music industry and music itselfchanging the ways in which it is discovered, made, distributed and consumed.

An article in the guardian in April 2008 by Chris Salmon shows how Radiohead are using MySpace in order to make money from their fanbase, they are offering a remix competition for their new single, Nude, and charging 79p for each of the five parts of the song that can be remixed, essentially charging the participants £4 each to enter the competition.

The Internet:-

Aswell as providing social-networking so that bands can advertise themselves, the internet provides other services that advise consumers what to buy and download. "Pitchfork" is a website which "separates the musical wheat from the pop chaff," it rates bands who are not that well known and is described as "more about what might take off tomorrow than yesterday's news". Pitchfork publishes a number of album reviews each day and has begun to publish music videos and rate them on a scale of 1-10, they have their own interviews and reports and are involved in music festival reviews. It has listings of their own charts such as "the top 50 albums of 2007" and "the 20 worst album covers of 2007".
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/14/pitchfork.music)