Payola History

There are various cause and effect relationships in Chris Anderson’s essay “The Rise and Fall of the Hit.” First, the prevalence of illegal downloading, exposure to more music, and the option of purchasing single songs rather than buying an entire album caused the steep decline of music sales and marketing (Anderson 456-457). For instance, consumers can now listen to a wide array of artists on YouTube and then download the songs they like from the artist instead of purchasing an album from a highly marketed pop artist. Second, mass media was initially made possible by new technologies such as the printing press and phonograms (Anderson 459-460). For instance, newspapers allowed for news, entertainment, and politics to be widely available to

Both the radio and records have had significant impact on the development on rock n’ roll. Similarly, the radio and records gave musical artists an extended ability to stretch their audiences. Strongly intertwined, while they both gave listeners the ability to find artists they like, there are some clear differences between each the developments of the radio and that of records. In the years prior, the music industry was built on the “Tin Pan Alley” system that strictly controlled musicians and popular music (Schloss, Starr, and Waterman, p. 2-7). And much like the spirit of rock n’ roll itself, people within the industry eventually grew tired of conformity and no longer felt the need to follow the rules. Radio stations started forming separate licensing companies (BMI), which allowed them to play what they want (Schloss, Starr, and Waterman, p. 7). With an “open door” policy that allowed broadcasters to play music they wanted, radio stations had the important job of sharing a variety of music that could be heard all across the country. The radio began to function as a way of transporting records and genres of music all over the country from the traditional cultures they formed, which includes R&B, blues, and country. This reshaped the music industry by expanding its reach to new audiences. This, “allowed songwriters working outside of mainstream pop to claim royalties on the use of their songs on broadcasted

Guess What! In this article, about “Should Musicians Change Their Tune” Jacob Carter questions if musicians should sell their music on apps. Darrius Johnson describes up-coming artist getting signed by endorsement deal and getting distracted by not focusing on their music. And Stacia Coates states musician being advertise in commercial to promote their music. I argue the use of musician in advertisement because it helps them promote their music, and gain money.

The music industry is an oligopoly. Since the late 1800’s people like Thomas Edison have been buying up patents in communication technology, forming monopolies, leading to a non-competitive entertainment industry. With only a handful of corporations controlling all aspects of acquisition, distribution and marketing of music, harsh business principles create an exploitative industry that takes the best of what artists have to offer and leaves many of them unable to support themselves. Beginning in the 1950’s with payola and white cover music and ultimately evolving into iTunes and Spotify, the music industry has grown into a billion dollar industry with far-reaching influence and control. Contracts rarely serve the artists’ best interest and many are left out to dry when their usefulness has expired.

The ways in which intellectual property has been exploited through public performance over the past 50 years have significantly changed. During the 1960s, the BBC monopolized the radio industry with national and regional programs, until the emergence of offshore pirate radio. This caused the BBC to rename its stations and reintroduce local radio in order to counter the success of the illegal stations. 1973 introduced commercial radio, which saw a large increase of stations and shows available. This had a big impact on music publishing companies, as they could access a much wider audience through the larger range of outlets to exploit their songs, and subsequently receive performance royalties. Radio expansion has increased throughout the years with the introduction of DAB radio, and internet radio stations.

Music has become a center piece of life; however it comes with a vigorous price unknown to most of the public. The music industry is littered with corruption. My proposed research problem focuses on the manipulation and control the music industry has upon its artists through an unescapable 360 deal, which in and of itself is not only reducing an artist to almost indentured servitude, but also cripples record labels themselves. The 360 deal is a common mandatory contract record labels utilize to financially support an artist. This includes advances and funds for promotion, touring, and marketing, all which the artist has to pay back to the label. I believe this problem is significant and warrants further research because the record labels are unconstitutionally taking away artists rights in favor of their own greed, in turn, leaving the artist without ownership of their own songs, money, and rights to royalties.

Since the music industry is quite diverse it is consequently impacted by a great number of ethical issues. The issues span across the production side to the consumptions side of music. They issues deal with things as inconsequential as lip syncing to the breaking of laws when stealing music. Although there are a lot of different areas that can be examined within the industry, the most important ethical issues fall under the category of compensation.

Born in 1903, Theodore Adorno is one of the most prominent figures in the Frankfurt school of communications, a school of social theory and philosophy which studied the effects and structure of the media. In 1945, Adorno published one of his most famous articles, “A Social Critique of Radio Music”. In his somehow controversial essay, Adorno claims that the music played on the radio reflects broader social behavior patterns, that benefits the power elite and numbs the masses. Adorno goes on and state four axioms he believed to be true regarding the existing capitalist society, including how we live in a society of commodities. The main problem he dissects in his article, is that now music is being treated as a commodity as well. Further,

Most popular music today is driven by violence and sex. These musicians put out albums that glorify violence and promote causal sex. When the albums are being produced, the artist does not think of how it will affect the perspective merchant. When

There was also the Italian Mafia. They were recognized by the "Black Hand." The "Black Hand" was a letter with a black hand print on it. The letter would simply ask for money. Every Italian knew that if you refused to pay, it would cost you your life. The only way to be immune to the terrifying "Black Hand" was to be a part of the Mafia.

“Before the days of YouTube and the Internet, a band 's chances of striking it big depended on record companies. If a band was lucky enough to get a record deal, it gained access to a label 's vast resources and connections. The company paid for the band 's studio time, … and got its music played on the radio, reaching millions of record buying Americans” (Majerol, 1). Now, anyone with talent can post a video of themselves and become an internet sensation, only to then receive a deal with a label to continue growing their career. The issue is, with the Internet came digital downloading, and with the growing popularity of digital downloading came illegal downloading, known as Digital Piracy, which has affected the music industry greatly. This issue affects everyone involved in the Music Industry. From the small CD store owner to the Artist on stage, everyone has and continues to be affected by the growing popularity of digital downloading services. Artists, producers, and songwriters lose an estimated 12.5 Billion USD every year to illegal digital music services. Further, the economic impact from [digital downloading] is an estimated loss of 2+ Billion USD (Storrs, 1). This money affects the “little guys” in the industry and the average worker within the industry.

Introduction: Setting the trend for the future, the distribution and consumption of recorded music transformed dramatically with the launching of Apple’s iTunes in 2001. The proliferation of online music subscription services and other music sharing services exerted a great pressure on the conventional music distribution business model. Combined with this transformation, piracy of digital music had a profound impact on the whole industry. These worsening conditions in the market place for recorded music forced both established and upcoming new artists to experiment with new ways of selling their music.

In this article, Peterson and Berger show how the organization of the popular music industry affects the music that America hears.

The music industry has been around for over two centuries (PBS). Its volatility can be measured by its ability to shift and change according to its time period, the technologies that arise through the ages and the public’s shift in musical taste. The music industry is comprised of many different components, organizations and individuals that operate within it. Some of these components include the artists who compose the music themselves, the producers that engineer the sounds created by the artists, the companies that handle distribution and promotion of the recorded music, the broadcasters of the music such as radio

The radio is the oldest use of media for music. It has not lost its importance in spreading music though. Bands today still rely on the radio to help spread their music so people will want to but their albums. For a band to gain an audience and to get people to buy their albums they