A culture I recall consisted of
biweekly visits to the local record store like Best Buy or Circuit City to
simply purchase physical recording albums is now something we used to do. In
the past decade, the way people have been obtaining or listening to music has
changed drastically. When one of your favorite artists released a new album, it
was very common to go out and buy a physical copy of the CD and listen to it.
Nowadays, that is rarely done. Everything has been shifting towards the
Internet and digital sales. In the US, between 2000 and 2010 record store sales
declined more than 76% and CD sales declined by 50%. In 2012, digital music
sales surpassed physical music sales for the first time, with digital sales
making up 50.3% of all music sales. By the end of the year, physical music
sales were projected to decline by another 9%, while mobile music revenues
will rapidly grow at 39%, followed by online revenues, at 10%. (Joann) The
Wall Street Journal has gone as far as predicting the drop of record sales
to be an estimated 77.4% by 2016. Music shops, record stores, and large
national chains are all being affected by this transformation.
It seems that throughout the years,
with the introduction of various new means of listening to music, physical
music sales have been declining. The Internet has certainly provided a variety
of cheaper, easier, and sometimes free access to music. Whether you buy a song
on iTunes for either $1.29, $0.99, or $0.69, go on YouTube and play any
song you want to listen to, or take advantage of unlimited streaming from
services such as Pandora, Spotify, MySpace, or many smartphone apps, the need
to go out to a record store and buy a physical copy of a CD has been
drastically reduced. "Everybody is understandably cautious about this.
These artists are making their own business decisions based on how they feel.
We just have to keep reinforcing the positive side of what streaming
brings." (Alex) All of these services offer direct benefit effects on
consumers and have therefore allowed the decision to buy a physical CD to be
overwritten by the decision to use one of the many new and more convenient
services that are so popular today.
Despite a growing number of legal
alternatives to purchasing digital music, digital album sales have been
increasing. Joshua Friedlander, vice president of research at RIAA. "The
industry is adapting to consumer's demands of how they listen to music, when
and where, and we've had some growing pains in terms of monetizing those
changes." Those changes are simply due to the growing popularity of
digital music. There is other, however, other positive changes that has over
occurred over the past few years. According to the International Federation of
the Phonographic Industry, “revenues from music in radio advertising, recorded
music sales, musical instrument sales, live performance revenues and portable
digital music player sales grew from $132 billion to $168 billion, Concert
ticket sales in the US tripled from $1.5 billion to $4.6 billion from 1999-2009,
vastly exceeding the growth of inflation and population growth currently.”
(Lee) While that is still a significant amount of money, I cannot help but
wonder that is this (concerts) the most profitable way for artists to make
money now? Do we owe anything to our favorite artists?
Another factor that may come into
play regarding music sales is the lack of artist development. I believe that
music labels aren’t taking their time as before to develop artists as they used
to in the past. Labels want artists who have already proved themselves
independently. They want artists with
videos on YouTube with over a certain amount of views. It also seems like the
industry is heading into a direction where they won’t sign new acts anymore to
produce full-length albums. They'll just get deals for 1-2 singles, and if the
singles do well on commercial radio, they'll possibly get a "real
deal" later. Being that everything is so accessible on the Internet now,
music labels can develop these artists by exposing them more through various
online sites. “Though the focus has been on file sharing, the real story is how
the internet has empowered audiences, allowing them to transcend distance and
reach large audiences themselves, providing infrastructures for group
communication, supporting archiving, enabling new forms of creative engagement,
and lessening the social distance between them and media producers.” (Baym) The
consumers want to have a deeper, closer connection with these artists, which is
why the Internet has to be utilized wisely. Major artists like Taylor Swift or
Justin Timberlake do not have to worry about that as far as selling records
because they already have a solid fan base that’s been supporting them for
years. Not to mention the fact that the quality of their music is great. Do you
think that record labels should have some sort of partnership with social media
sites and streaming services so both parties can make money? Is YouTube helping
or destroying the music industry?
Works Cited
·
Pan, Joann. "Say Goodbye to Record Stores
and Physical Albums." N.p., 24 July 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.
·
Pham, Alex. "Full Stream Ahead?" Billboard
124.46 (2012): 43-. ProQuest. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.
·
Lee, Timothy B. "Why We Shouldn't Worry
About The (Alleged) Decline Of The Music Industry." N.p., 30 Jan. 2012.
Web.
·
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular
Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about the music industry compared only a few years ago today, we can see a drastic change in the way music is purchased and even listened to. Music has been a huge party of American’s lives since the invention of the radio, and it still is. According to the Radio Today 2012 Arbitron Report, “to this day, about 93% of consumers aged 12 years and older listen to the radio each week.” Although we do not solely just listen from the traditional radio or go to the record store to purchase a CD, there definitely has not been an increase in the amount of music Americans consume.
ReplyDeleteMany people think that there may be a decline in the sales of music, but I do not see this being a huge issue. Although I do feel that artists should definitely get paid for their hard work, today, many people are listening to Internet services and apps such as Pandora and Sirius XM Radio. According to an article in Media Decoder, “the popularity of satellite and Internet radio is starting to lead to larger royalty checks for musicians” (Sisario). With that being said, I feel that people not purchasing CDs anymore is not as big of an issue as it seems, since artists are still getting paid in some way.
As Rudy mentioned, there is a lack of artist development in our times, compared to years ago. I agree that music labels are not taking their time to develop an artist as they would in the past, but it seems there is a reason why. Websites such as YouTube and SoundCloud are becoming a huge help in allowing music labels to find artists. SoundCloud “…lets musicians, labels and fans upload tracks that can be streamed or embedded on social sites like Tumblr” (Sisario). Since this lets you know how many views a song or artist gets, I feel that music labels are leaning towards these types of sites to recruit new talent. It has created a more simple and speedy option for these music labels.
With the rise of the Internet and the music industry, it seems there are so many options for people to choose from. This can be an issue for the artists because they need to present themselves to so many different sites and platforms. As stated in “Rethinking the Music Industry,” “Artists and labels suddenly need to be represented everywhere (e.g., a web site, MySpace, Facebook, Spotify, Last.fm, Twitter), and audiences face more music options than they can begin to digest” (Baym). Since there are so many different ways to reach an audience, more professions may be developed because of this. An artist can not simply reach all these different sites and apps by themselves, someone must help to monitor and control them, thus creating new career opportunities.
Looking at the industry, I do not think there will ever be a decline in music or the music industry will be destroyed. I feel there is always going to be a change in the way things are done and how people listen, but there is always going to be a way for artists to get paid. Though there is a decrease in the purchase of whole albums, the way we are using the Internet to spread music is helping to create more career opportunities today.
Works Cited
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180.
"Radio Today 2012 Executive Summary." Radio Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.
Sisario, Ben. "Measuring Growth in Dollars and Page Views." Media Decoder 16 Jan. 2013: n. pag. Print.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOver the past decade we have seen a drastic change in the evolution of the music industry. Compared to the way the music industry was when we were little to now, you can see how different the way purchasing and listening to music has become. The way listeners use to obtain music has gone from purchasing physical CD’s or records in a store to downloading it on to your laptop illegally or by just listening to it for free on the internet. Since technology is such a big part of our society and the way we work, everything has been shifting towards the internet or digital products. According to an article in the Huffington Post, “unsurprisingly, physical music continued it yearly decline, with sales down by 12.8% in 2012.”(Guarini), this continues to show the down slope CD’s and records have fallen over the past years. Due to the issues that arise when dealing with physical music purchases and internet downloads, the artist and music labels have taken major hits. Since no one is going out to buy music anymore, the record labels in many ways are losing money. Although they are gaining it back in other ways, they have had to undergo major transformation when dealing with certain aspects in the music industry. As Carrie brought up in her post, “the popularity of satellite and internet radio is starting to lead to larger royalty checks for musicians” (Sisario). This shows that the artist in some way is still getting paid the money they deserve for their work.
ReplyDeleteRudy brings up the other various means of listening to music rather than by the physical CD or record. Since these types of applications are increasing when dealing with sales, they are transforming into the new way we listen to music. YouTube, Itunes, Spotify, Pandora, and other Smartphone apps are taking over the need for people to go out and run to the store to purchase an album. “While physical continued its decline, digital sales of music continued to rise in 2012. Thanks in large part to digital music stores on iTunes and Amazon digital music’s 9.1% growth meant the format accounted for 37% of all album purchases during the year.” (Guarini). This quote represents how much digital music is taking over the industry. There is no longer a need or a want for physical formats.
I agree with the point that Rudy makes about the music labels not taking enough time to develop an artist before they introduce them to the world. It seems that nowadays, artists are taken from social media sites and projected into these superstars in a matter of months. Take Justin Bieber for example, he started off as a typical 15 year old and then he put his videos on YouTube and everything changed. “Artists and labels suddenly need to be represented everywhere (e.g, a website, Myspace, Facebook, Spotify) and audiences face more music options than they can begin to digest.” (Baym), this quote shows how social media has taken over many of the entertainment industries. Whether artists come from social media at the start or not, the labels and the artists have a way of making their way onto every social media site in order to show their music and appeal to the world.
Work Cited
Guarini, Drew. "Music Sales In 2012 Prove Digital Is Rising, CDs Are Dead And ... Vinyl Is Alive Once Again?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 09 Jan. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2013. .
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180.
Sisario, Ben. "Measuring Growth in Dollars and Page Views." Media Decoder 16 Jan. 2013: n. pag. Print.
Unfortunately it seems like the music industry is probably the one industry that is harmed the most by this digital revolution. At the beginning of this revolution, the music industry welcomed it and saw an “all-time worldwide sales peak in 1998” (Baym). However, the general public has adapted much quicker during this revolution and the music industry hasn’t had much time to react. It is clear that pirating music, YouTube, and websites like Pandora and Spotify have made it much easier to listen to music for free. Consumers can now consume without paying the artist a single penny. While iTunes is a very popular source for buying music, many young adults who grew up on a computer know how to get what they want without going through iTunes.
ReplyDeleteThis has spelled disaster within the music industry and it doesn’t seem as if the industry leaders even know of a way to reverse this decline. “Its audiences are decentralized, and neither they nor the digital content they may redistribute can be controlled” (Baym). The music industry is going to have to drastically redefine their business models and completely revolutionize the way they make, produce, and sell music. The artists that were around before the rise of the Internet seem to have no problem figuring out how to make money in this decline though. Madonna figured out that the key to success isn’t in album sales or sales via iTunes—it’s through concerts and performances. Quoted in Reuter’s article, Billboard’s editorial analyst Glenn Peoples said, “Ironically, the most popular touring artists are usually well past their peaks on the album sales charts.” (“Madonna”). Perhaps this isn’t very ironic at all. They knew how to be successful before iTunes and they are continuing this success with old and new generations of the likes.
I never thought of it, but until you mentioned the hike in ticket prices, it makes sense that artists are charging more for the fans to go and see them perform live. After all, how many of those who fill the stadiums for Rihanna actually paid for any of her music? Would be an interesting statistic to see at least.
I think it would be very wise of the music industry to consult with social media—after all, every other media industry has. I don’t know what the right pathway to take is, but social media isn’t going anywhere soon. Utilizing YouTube to gain popularity of a new artist is a great first step, but there must be other ways in order to turn that popularity into a profit. Nowadays though, it seems as though popularity is the key to making a profit. Take, for instance, Justin Bieber. Most of his success is how well he was able to brand himself and thus create a mega-fandom. He has realized the power in social media and has harnessed that energy in order to advance himself. As we talked about in the first class, the most popular people on Twitter (minus the President) are all musicians. It’s about time that the rest of the music industry realizes the power of social media.
Works Cited
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180.
"Madonna Crowned Top Music Earner in 2012 Due to World Tour." Yahoo! Music. N.p., 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.
Rudy presented various valid points as to why sales are declining in the ever-changing music industry. Physical musical sales became a memory and it is rare for one to rush to a CD store and purchase newly released or older music. Digital developments that benefit ways audience’s access music took the music industry to new levels of convenience, independence, and speed. To begin, Spotify is a program that provides instantaneous music that can be shared and listened to very easily. Listeners have the ability to create a personal account that connects them with friends on Spotify or on other social media platforms. This is a perfect example of how various programs and conveniences are grown from the success of social media sites like Facebook. Users are learning that this program will not necessarily have every song or album that they are looking for but many mainstream songs are played here. Along with this, up and coming bands or artists are exposing themselves on Spotify and can build a listenership by advertising or having their music shared between users. Spotify initially hooked in their listeners by letting them freely listen to music via their computer while experiencing minimal advertisements. A large number of users choose to purchase a membership by paying a monthly membership fee; allowing them access to their music playlists and songs on other listening platforms like their mobile phone. Mass popularity that this digital sensation has received has not necessarily made it extremely successful financially. As a company, Spotify Technology “…negotiates with record companies and music publishers directly, a process that can be arduous and costly — discussions with labels delayed its arrival in the United States by nearly two years. That means that its royalty rates vary from label to label, and are private…” (Sisario) So, a large percent of the income from subscriptions and advertisers goes towards the labels in the industry. “It’s possible that Spotify’s licensing costs could go down in the future, as record labels monitor its progress; they could decide to make changes to ensure that Spotify thrives and can keep sending over its royalty checks.” (Ibid)
ReplyDeleteRudy’s point about lack of artist development and the choices made when marketing an artist is a great observation. I agree when she says that labels release one or two singles at a time to see how they do on the market. When full albums have been made sometimes listeners receive five singles from the album before the entire disk is released. Taylor Swift is the perfect example of an artist who slowly releases a new album in increments; sometimes fans feel like they are receiving a sneak peak but also tend to become frustrated an forget that an entire album is even being released. Now this method is not necessarily bad, but labels need to remember what listeners are going to pay for and remember to buy. “They [producers and audiences] must discern when to charge and when to offer their audiences gifts that they can recirculate among themselves. They must enable and support practices that build social value.” (Baym) Tough financial times are occurring and I foresee them continuing but I think the industry will always find a way to survive and change with their audience. Old habits can make a comeback and audiences will surprise major companies. An example of this continued love of vinyl albums. Listeners can always be surprising when it comes to what they will pay for what they want.
Works Cited
Baym, Nancy. “Rethinking the Music Industry.” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180.
Sisario, Ben. “Pandora and Spotify Rake in the Money and Then Send It Off in Royalties.” Media Decoder (New York Times Blog). (2012)
Part 1 of 3
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is quiet interesting. Since the emergence of digital technology, its like a ripple effect that effects a wide range of media industries such as print/newspaper, television and cable industries. As always I’ll refer to the very nature of these changes which is the ever changing relationship between the media and its targeted audiences. As I said in previous blog posts the relationship dynamic between the media and its audiences has changed dramatically.
As a Generation Y’er I can say for myself and my generation is that we crave more personal intimate connections as with our TV shows, movies, hobbies, interests and extends to our music and music artists. I’m sure older generations also went through this with the invention of movies and the celebrity culture and music videos and mtv. Though now is different because we have access to forums and mediums that can better serve our need for a more intimate connection. Essentially we have better access to the world in our fingertips/keyboards (through technology, the internet, and social media) so we are forever exploring, searching and looking out into the world. This ever changing relationships are based too on convenience a lot of people have smart phones and this provides easier access to applications and social media sites where we frequent very often. Curiosity, the craving for more intimate connections and the convenience, widespread and speedy access to information and the world has led to a more fluid relationship, mutable and changeable exchange. The nature of loyalty has shifted too, our loyalty is less traditional. Our loyalty is more fluid and changing. And this loyalty is not about how long you’ve been with someone but more based on connections and reliability and on quality over quantity. One last thing to mention is that while all of this is going on we are more group and socially oriented. When you combine our curiosity, our need for personal, intimate connections, it makes us seem narcissistic and selfish, which is not the case. Using the invention of social media and the increase use of the internet has seen the rise of wanting to share information and details with others.
To apply this to the music industry and radio industry even to the print industry is this example: It’s not the old days where the music industry is one big powerful monopoly and money making machine that’s pumping out a solid group of artists with hits and cds and a solidified fanbase. Today its much more fragmented and splintered. We know there is more to it than that and that we have a say and choice in what we listen too since we’re always constantly on the lookout and search for more. So in that respect we are not so dependent on the music industry and much more independent about our choices in music.
Part 1 of 3
Part 2 of 3
ReplyDeleteIn the article, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” by Nancy Baym there are some very interesting points. One point is that the music industry was already in a decline before the recession hit due to file sharing. One example in the article is the quote,
“The music industry and its troubles are early harbingers of broader shifts in social and economic structures (Baym & Burnett, 2009; Benkler, 2006), particularly within industries built on the control of digital content. The model driving the music industries for decades has been one of economic exchange in which the musicians and other professional producers provide scarce goods (e.g., records, CDs, live performances, merchandise) for which the audience pays money, providing producers with their primary revenue stream. The ubiquity of filesharing brought recession to the music industry early, as it made their core scarce good of recorded music infinitely replicable. The fundamental shift to distributed and networked consumers continues to ripple out into many other industries... Audiences that can distribute content themselves are less convinced it is worth money, although many still buy.,” (Baym, 1).
This quote is saying that with the emergence of digital media content and file sharing has lead to the early financial decline that has cross over to many other industries because once scarce resources like music is now replicable, can be duplicated and less valuable as it once was.
Along with this is the hostility and resistance to these changes by the music industry as in this quote,
“As Wikström (2009) discussed at length, the mainstream music industry is built on centralization and control. Its audiences are decentralized, and neither they nor the digital content they may redistribute can be controlled. Yet the dominant industry response to the internet in their time of recession has been to cling more tightly to the model of centralized power and control on which their businesses were built,” (Baym, 2).
In this quote the very nature of the music industry is powerful monopoly built on the foundation of centralized power. Even so with its targeted audiences fragmented and decentralized the music industry in the time of recession responded with much more control and hostility to its changing position and relationships. This hostility as displayed in the article include attacking the practice of file sharing and filing lawsuits and actions to prevent it and not embracing new music online screaming and listening music oriented businesses like Last.fm, Spotify, Pandora and ReverbNation .
The point of this article was for the author to make the point that the music industry must stop resisting and instead embrace their new position and the new relationship with its target/prospective audiences.
Part 2 of 3
Part 3 of 3
ReplyDeleteAs for the article titled, “"Radio Today 2012 Executive Summary." By Radio Today which goes over the statistics about radio such as who listens to it and the demographics of radio users. An example from the text would be,
“About 93% of the U.S. population listened to radio during an average week, according to the Fall 2011 Arbitron survey (September 15, 2011-December 7, 2011). This widespread reach has changed very little over the decades; radio remains a reliable entertainment and information source for listeners regardless of their age, gender, income, education, or location in the home or outside the home. Time spent listening to radio, compared to last year’s report, is relatively stable.,” (Radio Today, 1).
The quote is saying that radio listening in the US is stable and that the majority of the US population still listens to the radio despite age, gender, income and other demographic factors. These statistics are not surprising and are completely logical and understandable. I don’t listen to radio as much as I used to but I feel radio is in a sort of different predicament than the music industry. Radio offers more loyalty/ loyal audiences and stable relationships. The reason behind this is because as long as you own a car or any four wheeled vehicle then you are bound to listen to the radio. This is why I don’t think radio is a thing of the past. The radio isn’t just focused on music but other things like news, weather, sports and talk/opinion/politics. There’s much variety and has a great appeal to a variety of people because of its variety and its inexpensive convenience. As long as you have a car you have a radio, it even comes with a radio. When we stop driving cars and vehicles is when radio officially dies, till then we have a few more years. Of course there is going to be a decline in radio but not that much or in the rate as with more power/monopoly oriented industries like the music industry. The radio industry doesn’t seem as hostile to change and seem to support digital content as in, internet radio like Pandora and Spotify, ability to download radio broadcast or podcasts and new initiatives like iheartradio. Along with that is the emergence of satellite/sirus radio which is offers more quality radio for a price. The radio seems to be trying out different things and adjusting, but not complaining or blaming others for its downfall like the music industry.
Overall more needs to be done including the embrace and transcending of new and different relationships, especially by the music industry. Technology, the use of social media and the use of digital content all are here to stay and would continue to evolve so the music industry needs to stop whining about it and do something about it. Once the music industry can accept its position and adjust to these conditions can they move on and get back on track.
Works Cited
Baym, Nancy, “Rethinking the Music Industry,” Popular Communication 8.3 (2010): 177 – 180.
"Radio Today 2012 Executive Summary." Radio Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.
Part 3 of 3