The modern Western music industry emerged between the 1930s and 1950s, when records replaced sheet music as the most important product in the music business. I’ll be sparing a whole lot of that information for now.
The music industry is one that has and will always be in constant evolution since the start of it. The music industry faces its largest challenges to date which has resulted to it’s constant evolution.
Having been fairly static for an extended period of time, the sector seemed long overdue the drastic change it would face entering the 21st century. The Internet, among other technological advances, led to a full-scale restructuring of the landscape. In what follows.
I want to briefly talk about the original blueprint of the recording industry and live music business.
For about 100 years the music industry was structured in an oligopoly, dominated by six major record labels who controlled the distribution promotion and licensing of musical products. Which was very profitable for these companies where they only paid crumbs to the artistes who did the foundational and even most part of the work in the whole sense
Among the musicians a few were able to reach financial success through recordings however many others including some very popular acts reaped little benefits from the distribution and sale of their recorded products
This resulted to a whole lot of artistes resolving to making money from other means like selling of tickets to shows and also sales of merchandise to list but a few
The distribution system was economically inefficient tied down by the extra complexity created by those looking to benefit from the music. The price of recording a song was expensive as this required time in professional recording studios. Since it was also pricy to promote and distribute music, musicians were left little choice than to sign on with labels. Additionally, production, promotion and distribution expenses were often incurred, at least in part, by the artists and then debited to the already small percentage of proceeds they received from their recordings. As a result of these various facets, the major record labels were able to use their oligopoly position and exclusive access to means of distribution, production and marketing to control the industry reaping the majority of the benefits.
The Live Music Business
Dating back to ancient times, live performances were the original source of a musician’s income. While this segment of the music industry has traditionally been significantly smaller than and lacks the stringent structure of recording, there are several common features worth discussing for a comprehensive understanding of the landscape. There are five major players who are involved in and profit from the live music process--the performer, personal manager, talent agent, promoter and venue operator. Personal managers work the closest with the performers helping them develop an all-encompassing career strategy. Some managers function as a part of a larger firm, while others work independently for a local band hoping to help them find mainstream success. Early on, they can offer constructive criticism on their music and live performance and help artists obtain publishing agreements or record deals. Managers generally have a vision, and plan, for their band that they work to maintain throughout as they are consulted in most major decisions. If their client finds success, the manager’s duties continue expanding to include public relations and any other relevant issues that may arise. Specifically within the realm of concerts, managers help decide on location, venue-size and timing, generally around the release of a new project, of tours. For their efforts, managers usually receive 15 to 20 percent of their artist’s gross earnings. Once the artist and manager have agreed on their approach to a tour, the talent, or booking, agent is in charge of actually contacting concert promoters. With a “tour itinerary” in place and the approval of the manager, these agents can then draft contracts for promoters and venue operators to finalize shows. Essentially, they bridge the gap between managers and venues by developing relationships with the right people. Agents can work on a local, regional or national scale often serving as part of larger organizations. The standard commission for national agencies is 10 percent of the income from shows they help book.
Promoters, often part of larger event promotion organizations, are in charge of marketing and presenting live entertainment events. They serve as yet another middleman in the industry contacting the appropriate venues to find available dates. Their agreements with performers consist of two parts. First, they settle on the date, fee structure and other basic features. Performers generally receive a flat payment for their shows and larger acts also take a specified percentage of profits. Next, the “rider” portion of the contract is drafted, which includes details about the artist’s accommodations and other necessary details. Once the deal has been reached, the promoters can then get to work advertising the event.In addition to their deal with the artists, promoters also must come to agreements with the venues, which host the concerts. These contracts specify the rental cost for the space, and can extend to include cleanup, event staffing and stage equipment. In certain cases, they will also take a percentage of ancillary merchandise sold at the show. If the venue expects the performance to be especially profitable, they may also take on some of the promotional roles themselves. Historically, record labels only take part in the live entertainment side of the industry insofar as it helps promote the sales of its recordings. With their less-established artists, labels might have helped financially support tours in order expand their signee’s audience and fuel the sale of recorded music. With the steep decline in record sales in the early 2000s, though, several record labels began experimenting with vertical integration by helping promote tours and subsequently revising contracts to include a portion of revenues from live music.
Lately since the rise of streaming the digital era, The record labels are still very important players in the game but a whole lot of smaller record labels and Independent artistes not affiliated to any major record label now have a voice too only if their cards are played right and have money invested in the right way.
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb "to stream" refers to the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner the term refers to the delivery method of the medium, rather than the medium itself, and is an alternative to file downloading a process in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the content before watching or listening to it.