The Big Six: The Music Industry And The Big Six

According to Hein, Music is a major influence in marketing today, “ There have been 1,050 references of about 66 different brands in songs ranked in the top 20 through the beginning of October, according to San Francisco- based brand consultancy LucJam”(Hein 346). Keeping up with the techniques of advertisement for marketers will help with the increasing demands of future generations.

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.

Record companies are huge corporations that own a variety of record labels. For the most

The world market of record music in 1990s was dominated by only five big corporations: BMG Entertainment, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. The majors could maintain their status thanks to patents and agreements, technological improvements and M&As. The majors had the complete control of patents and music rights from the artists. Even though the artists tried to directly contact to the customers, they could not afford the attempt. Thus, they relied on the professional signers and on the publishing company. The

Sights, sounds, and tastes are apart of everyone’s day to day life. The music industry alone is a multi-billion dollar industry, feeding off of our wants or needs. Music is a mood alternator, it alone can relax someone or fire them up (Seinfeld et al. 2016). Music has been around since the turn of the century, and there is no wonder why. We the people, the consumer, keep asking for more in different genres, tunes, and frequencies.

The popular music industry in the late 1990s was dominated by a small number of integrated corporations with headquarters in Europe, the United States and Japan. This music market starts simply with an artist and moves along through many steps to the consumer. Everything has its start when a musician presents his music to a music manager, and if he/she finds the music promising, a contract is signed between the two, recordings are made and a marketing plan is drafted for the

“Unfortunately, the history of black music has been a continuous one of whites’ lucrative expropriation of black cultural forms” (Kelley). “Black music has become a part of a structure of stealing” (Kelley) on the part of a white-dominated music industry. This structure began primarily during the jazz era of the 1920’s. Black jazz artists were exploited for their talent, without being given the full credit or compensation for their work that they deserved. Furthermore, their music and style was copied and credited to white artists, and the few black artists who were able to succeed in the industry were submitted to a form of musical segregation via race records.

A brief introduction into the world of the music publisher will help the understanding of the benefits and pitfalls that occur with the ongoing decline in the record industry, and how music publishing utilizes the advantages it possesses to insulate itself against the changing marketplace due to it’s diverse streams of revenue.

Sony Music Entertainment has been the most influential label in music history. They have signed musicians of all different generations and genres so their artists appeal to my generation, my parents generation, and even my grandparents generation. How do they know how to produce music that anybody can enjoy? And at the end of the day, what is more important to them, making a profit or making great music that they are proud of?

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

When listening to many popular songs today, it is easy to pick up on their similarities in composition, message, and sound. This is not due to a lack of originality. In fact, it is evidence that there is a certain formula for writing a hit song. In the popular music business, creative teams collaborate to churn out trendy tunes, following a strict system that has been set in place. Interestingly, this template for writing a hit is not something that has emerged recently. It is something that songwriters and artists have been profiting on for many years. This essay will focus specifically on two distinct eras separated by nearly a century and describe this “factory model” of songwriting in American pop.

Over the past decade, the use of CDs has been replaced with online streaming and retailing. This has eliminated much of the record companies revenues as they were used to making most of their profit off of distribution and promotion of physical copies of artists albums (Niemen). This has caused for a major shift and remodeling of major players in the music industries business models. Companies such Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group have started to completely rethink the way they conduct business (Forbes). In the past record labels were not only responsible for production, distribution and promotion of an artist and his/her music, but they also acted as a bank (Forbes), funding the artists tours and recording sessions. Recently, these music giants have been moving towards becoming more of a modular network organization. What this means is that they are less occupied with the nitty gritty, and more focused on what they do best which is distribution and promotion. This also allows for more freedom of creativity for the artist as well as fairer split of profits (Forbes). This adaption of new business models clearly shows the versatility of the music industry in adapting to new times and technologies.

The recording industry is making any kind of music and selling it. In 2016, the music sales went up 11%. RIAA says “create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States.” in early 2000, people would illegally download music and files. In 2011, the biggest recorded music industry was now on internet plat-form helped by a computer company. They reduced sales in the early 1920, but they became well liked again. Being able to duplicate cylinders and disc was in 1890, when the turn of the century happened. The US, British, Germany and other places soon became leading position. The recording industry is a way to sell labels and record music and make big bucks at the same time. Pre records

In the music media industry, I do not believe in having illegal music. There is no point in having illegal music. I do not support having illegal music because of the money, illegal music can cause trouble, and there should just be no more illegal music.

The recording music business was originally dominated by record labels beginning in the 1950s. According to Aspray, the original structure of the recording industry stood as an oligopoly controlled by the six major record labels: Warner Music Group (WMG), Electrical and Music Industries Group (EMI), Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Group (SMG) and PolyGram (PMG). The Big 6 controlled all promotional and distributional efforts of recorded music and this control allowed them to dominate over smaller record labels due to their size and financing. Although the Big 6 profited from this model, frequently the earnings were disproportionately distributed unevenly amongst artists, leaving them disadvantaged with little monetary return from the sale of their recordings. (Aspray)