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The music business is always changing, since it's always changing this affects how we way we listen to music and how music has been consumed depending on media. To be apart of the music industry we must adapt to these changes and trends. In this assignment I will be finding out more about the different ways technology has changed and how we consume that technology.

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The big three are the three major labels at the minute, which are:

Sony BMG (Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Liam Gallagher)

Universal Music Group (Adele, Taylor Swift, Kanye West)

Warner Music Group (The Rolling Stones, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Ed Sheeran)

The major record labels are the ones with all the money and are most likely only looking to make money. A lot of the major labels only see music as a means to make and don't care whether the artist are happy with what they're putting out. When signing with a major label a majority of the time you're signing away your right to have control in your creativity and how you're presented to the world. Major label will most likely be in charge of what music you release, when you release music, how you look, what press you do and when and where you will tour.
A record contract is a legal agreement between an artist and a record label, this is an agreement where an artist makes music and/or tours and the record label sells and promotes your brand. One of the best know deals is the 360 deals, this is where the label is entitled to a percentage of everything you make whether that be from, ticket sales, merchandise sale, endorsements or licensing and placement royalties. In exchange for this the label claim that will commit to promoting the artist for a longer period. Some good points of signing this deal is that you may not have to cover all of your own costs, most of your cost for things such as booking studio time and rehearsal space will come from the record label. Another good point of signing this deal and being signed to a major label is all the contacts you could potentially have that will boost your career. Some downfalls of signing a 360 deal is that you may not be in control of the music you release and how your presented to the world, this can be a major downfall as when you're signed to the contract ultimately it's the label who gets the final say in what you do. Another downfall is that the label may keep all the rights to your music, so legally it may not be yours.

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Intellectual Property and Copyright Laws

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Intellectual Property and Copyright Laws

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Intellectual property is ensuring that you have the correct rights of protection to stop people from plagiarizing your work. This is to stop people from stealing such things as the name and design of a product or brand you created, things you’ve wrote, made or produced. You can only get intellectual property if you have physically created something, for example you can only get it if you have started a business not if you have had an idea for business. Intellectual property can belong to people or a business, can be sold or transferred and can also have more than one owner. Different types of intellectual property are copyright, trademark and patents.  Copyright does the same as intellectual property, it protects your work and stops other people from using it as their own. To get copyright protection you don't have to pay a fee or apply for anything. Copyright also prevents people from distributing copies of your work for free or money. According to the website Investopedia, copyright infringement is the use or production of copyright protected material without the permission of the copyright holder. Copyright infringement means that the rights afforded to the copyright holder, such as the exclusive use of a work for a set period, are being breached by a third-party. Music and movies are two of the most well-known forms of entertainment that suffer from significant amounts of copyright infringement. One of the biggest copyright infringements within music happened in 1990 when rapper Vanilla Ice released 'Ice Ice Baby', it was clear to anyone who had heard the song that it sounded a lot like the Queen and David Bowie collaboration, 'Under Pressure'. Vanilla Ice then found himself being sued for the copyright infringement but denied it as he had altered the song claiming it as an original. Later in order to avoid a lawsuit Vanilla Ice decided to pay royalties to Queen and David Bowie, and gave both artists songwriting credits for the song, as he later stated this would be cheaper than a lawsuit. Patents are used for inventions, they are granted by the government to the inventor by going the inventor for a limited time the right to stop others from using or selling the invention without the inventor's permission. Patents are territorial rights which means that when an inventor has a UK patent that only gives them their rights within the UK. For the invention to be approved for a patent it must be new, so it must have never been public in anyway anywhere around the world, before the date on the application for the patent. The invention must be able to be made or used in some kind of industry. An invention cannot be approved for an invention if it is a discovery or a scheme or method for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business. Some of the organizations in place for musicians are PRS for Music and the Musicians Union. PRS for Music is an organization that pays royalties to its members when their work is performed, streamed, downloaded, used in a film or tv and played in a public setting such as cafes or restaurants. The musicians are supported by PRS influencing policy, holding awards and events and also investing in new technology to make sure that everything is updated for users. PRS for music have representation agreement with societies covering over 150 countries all over the world. This helps them to collect and distribute all the royalties for their members. By getting a PRS for music license this enables you to legally use or play music.

The musician's union is a musician's trade union that currently has over 30,000 members. The musician's union negotiates in support of their members with employers in the music industry. The musician's union also offers a range of services for their members such as £2,000 of instrument insurance cover, free legal advice and representation, Free training, workshops and networking events and so much more. This organization is good because it takes some worry off the musician and lets them focus more in creating and playing live.

Music distribution is how music gets out to the public, the distribution companies sign deals with the record labels with means that they can sell the labels products.

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With the rise of social media and other music sharing formats major record labels are becoming more and more unimportant ant the basis of how big an artist can get. A good example of this is the grammy award winning artist Chance The Rapper. The 23 year rapper started making in music in his hometown of Chicago, in his senior year of high school he began recording his first mixtape, 10-day. Before releasing the album Chance released his first single 'windows' and began doing gigs around Chicago and started building a following online. Following the single release eight months later he released his first mixtape, since building a fan base online and through doing gigs the mixtape received over 400,000 downloads on the music-sharing site DatPiff, DatPiff is a website in which independent hip hop artists can share their mixtape/albums for free. Chance The Rapper began being noticed by other established hip hop artists who he featured on songs, such as Childish Gambino. It wasn't till a year later he released his second mixtape, Acid Rain that things started to really take of for Chance. The mixtape Acid Rain received over a million streams, all while still being completely independent. In 2015 the rapper became a household name when he first performed on 'Saturday Night Live', he was also the first unsigned artist to do this. In 2016 he released his biggest mixtape to date 'Coloring Book', which was still completely free to consumers, . This album featured huge names such as Kanye West, Justin Bieber and Lil' Wayne just to name a few. Despite being free and streaming only the album hit number 8 on the Billboard hot 100 album chart, being the the first exclusive streaming album to ever get on the chart. Because 'Colouring Book' was such a huge success the Grammys changed rules so he and the album could be nominated in 2017, before this never had a stream only artist or album been nominated. After being nominated seven times, he went on to win three grammy awards that night. To make a living Chance the Rapper relies solely on merchandise and ticket sales. His signature '3' merchandise have become a fashion statement among the hip hop community and his fans. In an interview with vanity fair the rapper explained "After I made my second mixtape and gave it away online, my plan was to sign with a label and figure out my music from there, but after meeting with the three major labels, I realized my strength was being able to offer my best work to people without any limit on it."
Although Chance the Rapper has changed the stigma on that you can only be a major artist through a major label I don't think this will affect major labels too much as the biggest artists in the world are all on major labels and a majority of upcoming artists will sign deals with labels so they don't have to deal with the business side of things but I also believe that Chance the Rapper will influence and inspire upcoming artists to be independent in future years, he has proven that with drive and knowledge that you can still become a huge without the help of a major label.

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Investopedia. (2018). Copyright Infringement. Available: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/copyright-infringement.asp. Last accessed 16/2/18.

Jordan Runtagh. (2016). Songs on Trial: 12 Landmark Music Copyright Cases. Available: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/songs-on-trial-10-landmark-music-copyright-cases-20160608/vanilla-ice-vs-queen-and-david-bowie-1990-20160608. Last accessed 16/2/18.

convergentdivergent.wordpress. (2013). Queen and David Bowie vs. Vanilla Ice. Available: https://convergentdivergent.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/queen-and-david-bowie-vs-vanilla-ice/. Last accessed 16/2/18.

Jacob Shamsian. (2017). A 23 Year Old Rapper Who Refuses To Sign A Record Deal Just Made Grammy History. Available: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/chance-the-rapper-grammys-record-deal-a7578031.html. Last accessed 3/5/18.

Lisa Robinson. (2017). Why Chance the Rapper Makes Music for Free (and How He Actually Makes Money). Available: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/02/why-chance-the-rapper-music-is-free-and-how-he-makes-money. Last accessed 3/5/18.