Media Ownership In The Music Industry

What impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to audiences in the music industry?

The music industry is dominated by the 'big three' or the music Majors. These companies are; Warner Music Group, Sony Music and Universal Music Group.

They own many subsidiary labels. These subsidiary labels help to make up the label and many people are of the belief they these are actually independent labels but this is not true. For example, Def Jam Recordings is owned by Universal Music Group.

They are designed to reach the maximum audience and will have subsidiary companies that will deal with niche tastes as well as mainstream. For example, UMG also own Verve which are a specialist Jazz music company.

According to a report published in 2012 by Music & Copyright, the majors accounted for 74% of physical and digital music sales globally. This means that they operate in an oligopoly where a small number of companies dominate and control the music market.

These record labels becoming subsidiaries means that the Majors have concentrated media ownership in the music industry. This is known as conglomeration (fewer companies owning more so less competition) which means that record labels are being taken over and integrated into a huge organisation that deals in other media industries.

There are also independent labels. These labels are affected differently by media ownership due to being smaller companies. These companies operate separately from the Majors and often specialise in specific music genres. They tend to cater for niche audiences. 

The most successful independent record label in the UK is Domino. Artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand are signed with them. 

The independent record label XL Recordings have recently been hugely successful with their signed artist Adele.

Many record labels that people think are independent are, in fact, actually subsidiaries of a major label.

The production, distribution and exhibition/exchange of artists in major record labels and independent record labels vary.

For the music Majors their plan would be as follows; 

1. Sign an artist 

2. Write an album and record it

3. Give away a track

4. Set up an online profile (to get to top of Google search)

5. Set up a Facebook page

6. Create website

7. Plugger gets airtime on Radio 1

8. Release for digital sale on iTunes

9. Album available to purchase in shops

For independent labels who cannot find their artists on talent shows their plan would be slightly different;

1. Find an artist

2. Deals are made between the independents - labels and artists

3. Tracks are written and recorded 

4. DIY - promotion: blogging, Facebook, MySpace

5. Live gigs (play for free)

6. Start distributing (go to shops, iTunes)

7. Have a launch party 

8. Offer free tracks and promote everywhere