2. What is the current state,
concerns and future of the
Music Industry, particularly in
the UK but also worldwide?
3. Overview
∗ At this current time in our society, the music industry is
extremely healthy due to music being so easy to access.
Whilst there are ‘illegal’ ways of accessing music and
downloading music from other sources, the music industry
are still able to make a lot of money from selling artists
merchandise as well as concerts.
∗ However, some areas of the music industry are doing
significantly better than others which has an overall effect on
the whole of the music industry which ultimately puts the
industry under threat, world wide.
4. Music Companies
∗ There a three major music companies which are in control of a lot of
the production, promotion, distribution and exhibition of music in the
music industry.
∗ These companies are Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and
Warner Music Group with over 28% of the music market sales
shares being controlled by independent labels such as XL
Recordings.
5. Digital Media
∗ Digital Music revenues had a 6% growth in 2010 which shows that
the music industry is benefiting a lot by digital media. What is even
more outstanding is that there has been a 1000% + increase in the
value of the digital music market from 2004 - 2010 and The Unites
States alone made $4.6 billion digital revenue in 2010.
∗ There are over 400+ licensed services which are becoming available
to a wider audience due to social networking sites and the internet
being readily available to more people on a daily bases. This
enables music subscription numbers in many countries to steadily
advance.
6. Digital Piracy
∗ Digital Piracy has become an increasing problem in the music industry and whilst
digital media has been up 1000%+, revenues have decreased by 31%. These figures
show that even though companies are licensing hundreds of digital music
services, they have been unable to prevent the decline in the legal and legitimate
music market.
∗ Harris Interactive found that 76% of all music found online in the United Kingdom
in 2010 was unlicensed which shows just how much of an effect piracy has on the
music industry.
∗ The IFPI Digital Music Report 2011 reports that there is a high chance of one
million jobs being lost in Europe by 2015 if piracy is not addressed.
∗ BitTorrent websites are becoming commonly popular which makes the access to
illegal and unlicensed music easier for everyone.
7. Threats to the Music Industry
•
The biggest threat to the music industry is the
increasing access to illegal music from the
internet which has an effect on all of the new
artists that have recently released albums as
people are stuck with a ‘why pay when its free’
state of mind.
•
Technology is increasing just as fast as the
music industry is expanding which means that
people will always find ways of gaining music
free of charge, for example, burning illegal cd’s
to those that are not fans of digital music.
•
Social channels such as YouTube, Facebook
and Twitter are making the access of
unlicensed music easier to access and so the
social media has a huge impact on the music
industry.
