The Music Industry

The Music Industry

The music industry consists of many branches and styles of music all of which target a specific target audience in aim to gain recognition and money. These branches of music span a variety of ways to span out to the audience. 

For example, the main section of the music industry is the chart music of which is most commonly known. This will be the music that you will hear everywhere and have easy access to it, for example these artists, such as One Direction, Taylor Swift and Beyonce, will be shown through music channels 'Vevo' and '4music'. This branch of music will also be commonly used on other programmes such as talent shows 'X Factor' and 'Britain's Got Talent'. This publicity makes this branch of music highly successful and very well known as it would be hard not to know these artists.

Rock has never had the same publicity as chart music as it's not seen as a universal style of music so wouldn't attract the wide audiences that chart music does. This does not mean that rock has never been a very successful branch of music. ACDC and Bon Jovi had a massive influence over the economy of the music industry but as the music evolved into R'n'B music, rock began to hide behind the new brand of music. 

However, in recent years rock music has become increasingly popular to ages in-between teenage and late adults around 40 due to music magazine and radio station 'Kerrang' becoming more of a presence in shops. Moreover, with the success of rock artists such as 'Fallout Boy' and 'Bring Me The Horizon', this success has boosted the standard of rock that is around today and is creating a massive amount of revenue, particularly on music festivals such as Reading. 

Classical music has become a thing of the past now however not extinct.

Most of classical pieces are pieces from the renaissance (1400-1600) and common practice period 1600 - 1750) although they target a  small target audience of the elderly; classical music is still being produced and labeled. Distribution as well as development is not of a high standard however. 

This branch of music doesn't have a high income as it doesn't appeal to mainstream audiences and the elderly will only be able to afford them out of luxury as many will be retired. This means revenue is slow. 

Moreover distribution, as mentioned, is poor. Few radio channels broadcast classical music such as 'Classical Fm' and 'BBC radio 4' and T.V programmes and adverts will be less likely to use this music as not everybody would be able to relate or appreciate the advert for what it's worth. For example, a car advert with a background track of chart music would be more appealing and pleasant for the majority of audiences than classical music as it would be seen as more modern. 

Moreover, classical doesn't bring in a lot of money due to its low CD manufacturing rate (compared to other branches and styles of music) and lack of advertisement. 

 The music industry  is controlled mostly by three major labels, these include; the French- owned Universal Music Group, the Japanese- owned Sony Music Entertainment and lastly the US - owned Warner Music Group. These are not the only music labels however. Any labels outside these groups are known as independent labels. Most Rock and Classical artists (with a few exceptions) are owned by small independent labels. For example a small unknown band 'The Cab' are labelled by 'Republic Records' and 'RCA Records'.