Summary of the state of the music industry in 2012

The mental outlook of the music industry in 2012 varies in many ways compared to previous years such as 2009 and 2010 where there was not much difference, Traditionally a music video is structured into two aspects, these aspects have the same functions but are opposite in terms of their size. They are

1.     1.     Mainstream (the most financially successful) firm in the music industry, they are large organisations that saturates the market; they take up the whole market. Without the mainstreams the music industry wouldn't be an industry at all. It’s all about revenue and how much profit is going to be made. Mainstreams are known for having high production values they are very expensive forms of promotional media. Mainstreams are also known as being the “Majors” of the music industry and could be compared to a conglomerate (group of diverse companies under one common ownership).

2.   2.   Independent record labels –they are smaller than the mainstream organisations, however they deal with very specific genres to meet its “niche audience”.

Record labels own the music industries as a result the artists may feel that they are losing allot of profit but they do get money from promotional records such as tours. In 1970s to late 1970s we had the big 6 which were six major companies that own the music industry. However as of 2012 the big 6 was now the big 3 they are warner, Sony and universal music groups, universal is the process of buying out another company for example universal music group wants to buy out EMT, if they do proceed to buy out EMT then this could result in the market monopolising. It will cost universal music groups approximately around £1.9 billion to buy out EMT; the only way they could buy this company is by selling one of their record labels such as Coldplay which is very risky.

Billy Corgan argues that "there is nothing wrong with manufactured music, however some music videos do not embrace the values of “DIY culture”.

since 2012 has not reached the end yet, its best to rationalise my point of view and others in terms of the state of the music industry as of now (September) as things could change for the worse or for the better in the months to come.2012 has been a OK year so far for the music industry with new hits and number one singles from Linkin Park to platinum sold records from artists such as Chris brown and Justin Bieber.

Chris brown

Linkin Park

Justin Bieber 

However the question still lingers in the atmosphere, are we buying less or downloading more? The truth is really all just to do with technology and how the world has advanced itself (modernise) into such a way we as teenagers and adults are able to use technologies such as a computer or laptop and just simply download for free. As of 2012 there have been many negative situations such as falling sales and falling profit margins because of the use of illegal downloading and downloading in general. From 2008 to 2010 sales dropped over £100 million. Statistics report that:

In 2010- sales were 319 million

In 2009-sales were 366 million

In 2008- sales were 428 million multiply 2008 figure by ten it is clearly allot of money being lost as of now.

The use of CD’s to sell music has decreased due to the fact that there has been a changed in consumers behaviour, there are about 67 illegal downloads in the UK ,figures for 2012 show that there are about 1.2 billion downloads in 2012 so far.

Notice that there is a slight increases in the amount of music being sold from 2007 to 2008 despite having a constant  increase from 2001 to 2006.This is a contradiction as in 2008 we had the recession, surly there should not be an increase in demand!.

Some say that as of 2012 we as consumers should be essentially concerned about the music industry, people feel that we should not pay for music it’s just one of those things you get to listen to and enjoy. However this is very dangerous and does open the doors to copyright or even creating your own music video of your favourite song without permission is still astray. Creativity of a music video in the eyes of many should be respected (music is a part of everyone’s life). Music sales did go up this year but is still worrying in terms of the amount of people that are illegally downloading.

Statistics reported that music piracy causes around twelve billion of economic losses every year for the music industry resulting in many workers in the industry to become redundant as music firms cannot cope with the financial stress that is being afflicted on them by the public. Piracy is a real threat to the livelihood of the artist but also thousands of less celebrated artists in the music industry – from sound engineers to technicians. Jobs are being taken away from them, as a result the resources in the music industry such as the capital goods are depriving because of less skilled workforce and an increases in unemployment (talk about psychological stress). The music industry has so many roles such as giving the artist exposure to engage new fans as well as maintain the old fans. Music videos also function as a cross media promotional material which is what we as candi (city and Islington) students are doing for our A2 coursework.