the music industry

• The music industry is how music gets delivered to us.

It works in conjunction with the cinema business.
The aim of the music industry is gaining profit from the music product, by providing music people want to hear.
The industry invests in the music making process, then makes their profit by selling the music for more than the amount it took to produce and sell.
This profit also pays the artists who created the music.

• There are 3 main processes-

1. Creation- Where the artists, composers and musicians create the product.

2. Production- The music is then produced by a label.

3. Distribution- The music is delivered to the audience via the internet and hard copies. (mostly the internet these days)

This is all paid for by a Record Company.

The expenses come from the royalties that are paid to the musicians, composers, writers and record companies when a song is heard on a radio, tv, club, download or CD. 

Promotion is key to distributing music, so using social network platforms to keep fans updated on the artists' personal lives and the release of their new music helps enormously. 

• There are 3 main record labels in the world, Universal Music Group, Sony music Entertainment and Warner music group.

1. Universal Music Group

• UMG is a multinational music company, founded in the United States. 

It is the largest of the big 3 by it's leading market share of 27% and it's multitude of global operations.

Their publishing group discovers and develops songwriters and owns/administers copyrights to songs.

UMG first formed in 1912, founded by Carl Laemmle. 

At first, it was part of Universal pictures but completely separated in 2004.

Labels represented by UMG are Interscope Geffen A&M, The Island Def Jam Music Group, Universal Republic Records, Universal Music Group Nashville, Show Dog and A&M/Octone.

Artists signed to UMG include Akon, Drake, Kid Cudi, Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber, ABBA and the late Amy Winehouse.

• SME is a global recorded music company based in NYC, ran by Doug Morris, with an array of local and international artists. 

SME is home to premier labels representing all genres of music.

It is very close in line from being the biggest music company, with 23% of the market share.

Some of it's most successful artists include the late MJ, Paloma Faith and Rita Ora.

MyPlay Direct is the shop for true music fans. It is a division of SME and it is for connecting fans to the artists and music.

SME's smaller record labels include Arista Nashville, Beach Street Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records and many more.

3. Warner Music Group

• WMG is a group of businesses, founded many years ago by the Warner brothers, that help artists achieve long term success and provides consumers with extremely high quality music. 

They have 12.2% of the market share.

Their records include Asylum, Atlantic, East West, Elektra, Rhino, Sire, Warner Bros, etc.

Their most successful artists, among many, include James Blunt (legend), Tracey Chapman and Alice Cooper.