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 Monopolisation of the administration of music by large business concerns (the Big Four)

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 Monopolisation of the administration of music by large business concerns (the Big Four)

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So the big four are record companies and their share of global record sales are:

Universal Music Group (USA based) — 29.85%

Sony Music Entertainment (USA based) — 29.29%

Warner Music Group (USA based) — 19.13%

Independent labels — 12.11%

EMI Group - 9.62%

The big four has now become the big 3 since universal purchased Emi in 2012, collectively they account for 88% of the global record industry which is huge. Now these massive corporations are by no means in trouble because they own everything pretty much but there is alot of ways that current changes in music listening and distibution have effected them and I will now look into this.

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Below is a timeline of audio formats taken from wikipedia to illustrate my point about the big 3
Phonautogram  |   The famous phonautogram created in 1859 is the first recording ever madeMechanical analog; sound waveform transcribed to paper or glass
1883  | Piano roll  |   A piano roll used in a player pianoMechanical digital (Vacuum operated piano)
1886  | Music Box disc  |   8'' disc for playback on a music boxMechanical digital (Vacuum operated music box)
Late

1880s

| Brown Wax Cylinder  |   A collection of brown wax cylinders, vertical-grooveMechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion - could be re-recorded
| Organ Cob  |   An organ cob used in a player organMechanical digital (Vacuum operated organ)
| Ediphone, Dictaphone  |   A Dictaphone cylinder for voice recordingMechanical analog, the Ediphone and subsequent wax cylinders used in Edison's other product lines continued to be sold up until 1929 when the Edison Manufacturing Company folded.
| Phonograph disk (Emile Berliner Patent)  | Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion
1894  | Pathé cylinder  |   The vertical-groove pathé cylinderMechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion
1898  | Wire recording  |   A spool of steel wire used in early dictation recordersAnalog; magnetization; DC bias
1901  | 10'' 78rpm Record  |   78rpm record - playable on modern turntablesMechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion - made from shellac
1902  | Edison Gold Moulded Record  |   Edison's "gold moulded" black wax cylinder recordMechanical analog; vertical grooves, horizontal stylus motion - made from hard black wax - 160rpm standard - 100 threads per inch
1903  | 12'' 78rpm record  | Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion
| Gramophone Postcard  |   A gramophone post card, playable on 78rpm turntablesMechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion
1905  | Centre-start phonograph Record  |   A modern vinyl LP with a centre-start cutMechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion, starts from the centre of the disc
| Pathé Disc  |   The vertical-groove pathé discMechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion
1907  | Indestructible Record  |   Indestructible Record cylinder, vertical groove. Constructed of black celluloid on a cardboard core with metal bands at each endMechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion - made from black celluloid with cardboard and inner metal bands
1908  | Amberol Cylinder Record  |   The Edison "Amberol" cylinder record, vertical grooveMechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion - made from hard black wax - 160rpm standard - 200 threads per inch
1912  | Diamond Disc  |   The Edison vertical-groove "diamond disc"Mechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion - made from shellac
| Blue Amberol cylinder record  |   The Edison vertical-groove "Blue Amberol" cylinderMechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion - made from blue celluloid with plaster of paris core - 160rpm standard - 200 threads per inch
1925  | Electrical cut record  | Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion, discs at 7", 10", 12", most at 78 rpm
1930  | Filmophone flexible record  |   A red Filmophone recordMechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus movement - made from cellulose of various colours - 78rpm
1930s  | Reel-to-reel, magnetic tape  |   Studio master tape reelAnalog; magnetization; AC "bias" dramatically increases linearity/fidelity, tape speed at 30 ips, later 15 ips and other refined speeds: 7½ ips, 3¾ ips, 1⅞ ips
| Electrical transcriptions  | Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, high fidelity sound, lateral or vertical grooves, horizontal or vertical stylus motion, most discs 16" at 33⅓ rpm
1932  | Durium Record  |   A brown Durium 78rpm recordMechanical analog; lateral groove - made from a brown resin ("Durium)
1942  | SoundScriber  |   Green, vertical groove Sound Scriber disksMechanical Analog; vertical groove, 4–6 inch discs, it recorded sound by pressing grooves into soft vinyl discs
1947  | Dictabelt (Memobelt)  |   A blue Dictabelt recordAnalog, medium consisting of a thin, plastic belt 3.5" wide that was placed on a cylinder and rotated like a tank tread, developed by the Dictaphone company in 1947
1948  | Vinyl LP record (Columbia)  |   A Vinyl LP recordAnalog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques (LP, RIAA); lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion; discs 7", 10" and 12" at 33⅓ rpm, 1st LP Columbia ML 4001 Milstein, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
1949  | Vinyl 45 record (RCA)  |   A 7'' 45rpm recordAnalog 45 rpm vinyl 7" disk, first 45 pressed "PeeWee the Piccolo" RCA 47-0147 Indianapolis
1950  | Tefifon  |   A Tefifon cartridge with red vinyl tapeElectro-mechanical analog, vinyl belt housed in a cassette, used an embossing technique using a stylus to imprint the information, was the first thing to resemble a modern audio cassette
| 16 2/3rpm vinyl record  |   A label close-up on a 16rpm vinylMechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion - played at half the regular speed of an LP
1951  | Minifon P55  |   A single wire reel for a Minifon playback deviceAnalog, magnetic wire on reel, 30 cm/s or about 11.8 ips was quickly adopted by many governments as being the ultimate "spy" recorder of its day
1957  | Stereophonic vinyl record  |   An early stereo record labelAnalog, with pre-emphasis and other equalization techniques. Combination lateral/vertical stylus motion with each channel encoded 45 degrees to the vertical
1957  | Dictet  |   The very first audio cassette, made for dictation purposesAnalog, ¼ tape, 2.48 in/s, (3" reels housed 5.875 x 3 x .4375 inch cassette), developed by the Dictaphone Corp, was the very first dictation machine to use magnetic tape cassettes
1958  | RCA tape cartridge (Sound Tape) (Magazine Loading Cartridge)  |   The cassette format created by RCAAnalog, ¼ inch wide tape (stereo & mono), 3¾ in/s & 1.875 in/s, one of the first attempts to offer reel-to-reel tape recording quality in a convenient format for the consumer market
1959  | NAB Cart Tape (Fidelipac)  |   The cartridge known as a "Fidelipac"Analog, ¼ inch wide tape in cartridge, 7½ in/s & 15 in/s, Introduced in 1959 by Collins Radio, the cart tape format was designed for use by radio broadcasters to play commercials, bumpers and announcements
1962  | 4-Track (Muntz Stereo-Pak)  |   4-Track Cartridges of various sizesAnalog, ¹⁄₄-inch-wide (6.4 mm) tape, 3¾ in/s, endless-loop cartridge
1963  | Compact cassette  |   Variants of the infamous Compact CassetteAnalog, with bias. 0.15 inches (3.81 mm) tape, 1⅞ ips. 1970: introduced Dolby noise reduction
1964  | Sanyo Micro Pack 35
Channel Master 6546
Westinghouse H29R1  |   The micro pack recording system, intended for dictation¼ inch wide tape housed in a transparent cartridge measuring 2.6 x 2.9 x 1.9 inches, tape was stored on two reels residing atop one another, keeping the cartridge compact
1964  | Sabamobil  | A cartridge format for embedding and easy handling usual 3-inch-tape-reels with ¼ inch tape, compatible to reel-to-reel audio recording in 3¾ ips.
1965  | 8-Track (Stereo-8)  |   The inside of an 8-track cartridgeAnalog, ¼ inch wide tape, 3¾ in/s, endless-loop cartridge
| DC-International system  | Analog cassette format introduced by Grundig, Telefunken and Blaupunkt: 120 x 77 x 12 mm cassette with ¼ inch wide tape run at 5.08cm per second.
1966  | PlayTape  | Analog, ⅛ inch wide tape, endless-loop cartridge, introduced by Frank Stanton
1969  | Microcassette  |   A comparison of sizes for the Microcassette and MinicassetteAnalog, ⅛ inch wide tape, used generally for note taking, mostly mono, some stereo (developed in the early '80s). 2.4 cm/s or 1.2 cm/s
| Minicassette  | Analog, ⅛ inch wide tape, used generally for note taking, 1.2 cm/s
1970  | Quadraphonic 8-Track (Quad-8) (Q8)  |   A Quadraphonic 8-Track CartridgeAnalog, ¼ inch wide tape, 3¾ in/s, 4-channel stereo, endless-loop cartridge
1971  | Quadraphonic Vinyl Record (CD-4) (SQ Matrix)  |   An SQ quadraphonic recordAnalog, introduced by CBS Records Recorded two tracks on both stereo channels, requiring a decoder to hear all four tracks. Despite this, the format is playable on any LP turntable.
1971  | HiPac  | Analog, a successor of the 1966 PlayTape, using tape width of the 1963 Compact Cassette, Japan only
1976  | Dolby Stereo cinema surround sound  | Analog
| Elcaset  |   Elcaset (left) compared to a typical compact cassette (right)Analog, name comes from "L-Cassette/Large Cassette"
1978  | LaserDisc  |   Close-up of grooves on a LaserDiscAnalog; vertical groove, read by a laser
1982  | Compact Disc (CD-DA)  |   The underside of a compact discDigital. Linear PCM (LPCM)
1983  | Betamax Digital Audio  |   A Betamax tapeDigital
1986  | High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD)  |   An HDCD albumDigital. Redbook compatible physical CD containing 20–24 bit information (uses linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM)
1987  | Digital Audio Tape (DAT)  |   A DAT tapeDigital. This audio format famously caused controversy among recording companies when released due to the potential of perfect digital copies to increase piracy[1]
1988  | AIFF (File Format)  | Digital. Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)
1992  | Digital Compact Cassette (DCC)  |   A Digital Compact CassetteDigital, ⅛ inch wide tape, 1⅞ in/s, introduced by Philips and Matsushita in late 1992, marketed as the successor to the standard analog compact cassette
| WAV (File Format)  | Digital. named after the waveform created by a sound wave
| Dolby Digital Cinema Sound  | Digital. also known as Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994
| MiniDisc (MD)[2]  |   A red, translucent MiniDisc cartridgeDigital. Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC)
1993  | DTS, SDDS, MP3 (File Formats)  | Digital. Digital Theatre System (DTS), Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS), MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3)
1994  | TwinVQ  | Digital.
1995  | RealAudio[2]  |
1997  | DVD  |   A stack of DVD RW disksDigital. Dolby Digital, Digital Theatre System (DTS)
| DTS-CD  | Digital. DTS Audio
1999  | DVD-Audio  | Digital. Including Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), Linear PCM (LPCM), Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Digital Theatre System (DTS)
| Super Audio CD (SACD)  | Digital. Direct Stream Digital
| WMA (File Format)  | Digital. Windows Media Audio
| TTA (File Format)  | Digital. The True Audio Lossless Codec
2000  | FLAC (File Format)  | Digital. Free Lossless Audio Codec
| APE (File Format)  | Digital. Monkey's Audio
2001  | AAC (File Format)  | Digital. Advanced audio coding
2003  | DualDisc  |   One side DVD, one side CD - It's the DualDiscDigital. Multiple formats encoded onto the same disc
2004  | ALE or ALAC (File Formats)  | Digital. Apple Lossless
2005  | HD DVD  |   An HD DVDDigital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio
2006  | Blu-ray Disc  |   Blu-Ray discs and their containersDigital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio
2008  | slotMusic  |   A SlotMusic microSD card: an early attempt to sell pre-recorded music on an SD cardDigital. Usually at 320 kbit/s MP3 on microSD or microSDHC
| Blu-spec CD  | Digital. PCM

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So back in the early days you had to buy records that where produced by the big record labels, today the face of things has changed because of the ability to download and stream music, piracy is very easy, So I imagine that in the beginning of this era that the big record companies did see a down turn in profit. But the ones that survived have moved with the times and worked with companies like itunes and spotify to insure they are still getting a cut. Interestingly piracy is becoming less popular because of music subscription services like spotify and itunes, the standard price for these services is around £7.99 a month for access to just about every record ever produced so its much safer and easier to handle than trying to download torrents with possible viruses, so as a whole streaming services are the future and they are changing in such a way to make it affordable for the consumer but also profitable for the artists and record labels.

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The sustainability of large record labels with the changing music industry

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The sustainability of large record labels with the changing music industry

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The sustainability of the larger record labels is in question currently because of the changes in how people buy music, more musicians than ever are self publishing their own music to streaming services like spotify and itunes, however I don't believe the larger record labels are under much threat as discussed above, the large record labels have moved with the times and diversified.

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Copyright law and challenges faced by the changing face of music business

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Copyright law and challenges faced by the changing face of music business

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As I have explained earlier the skills needed to make effective business decisions in the music industry and indeed any kind of larger expansion requires the help of others, no man can possess all the knowledge necessary to make anything great on his own, making contacts and being personable is one of the greatest skills needed, I will talk about this in greater detail later.

Help is available in many forms to make decisions, recently I went to the output festival at the mac theatre which was a gathering of some of the big names in music business, one of the people I got talking to was a rep from the musicians union, as a student you can join the musicians union for just £20 per year, which can be seen on their home page here: https://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/Join

One of the biggest benefits from the musicians union is legal guidance, as per their website “You’re a musician not a lawyer,  you want to make music, not unduly worry about unpaid fees, cancelled bookings and intellectual property rights” the musicians union provide legal advice and will help with any contracts that you have been given, your instruments and equipment are also insured for up to £10,000 and they provide liability insurance for up to £10, 000, 000 just in case you happen to blow the sound system at a music festival. This help is all provided with the membership fee and in my opinion, is an invaluable resource so we aren’t tied up in legal issues as musicians.

Recently I attended a seminar in the oh yeah centre with representatives of the music publishing agency PRS, I spoke with Stuart Flemming about the benefits of signing up with PRS, he highlighted that any original song registered with PRS which is played live or used in any public context can make money from royalties, this is very much in my interest as I currently have music on podcasts and youtube videos and am working with some local artists to provide them with instrumentals which would be played live, the amount of royalty paid varies greatly on the nature and size of the venue but any cash flow available at all is worth my while. I also spoke with Stuart about the fact that a lot of my music uses samples which is a bit tricky as to claim money from PRS for those tracks I would need to have all samples cleared by the original artist, the publisher and possibly the record label depending on who owns the copyright and publishing rights for the song that I have sampled. Registering these songs with PRS doesn’t seem worth my while right now this early in my career but what it has done is make me focus on creating my own original compositions, the more original work I have the more royalties I can claim from PRS.

Copyright infringement is a pitfall a producer must avoid, this mistake can work out very costly, a recent example of this is the song blurred lines by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, in this article from the daily mail website it states that the song blurred lines made $16 million dollars for Pharrell, Robin Thicke and rapper T.I. however a jury found them guilty of copyright infringement:

“A jury awarded Marvin Gaye's children $7.4million on Tuesday after determining singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied their father's music to create Blurred Lines, the biggest hit song of 2013.”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2988797/Marvin-Gaye-s-family-wins-7million-Pharrell-Robin-Thicke-Blurred-Lines-lawsuit.html#ixzz4zAVLfTwK

Copyright law and understanding the possible legal issues around releasing music is very important for a producer to understand. The resources section in my music business course folder describes 2 different types of copyright license

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_audio_formats