'Free content is an inexorable fact of life brought on by the unstoppable advance of technology.'

Music Matters Campaign

What is the Music Matters campaign? "The Music Matters campaign is a collective of people across the music industry, including artists, retailers, songwriters, labels and managers, formed to remind listeners of the significance and value of music."

• The site gives fans an easy place to find new music
• They have a massive range of music to hear and buy - only get what you want
• The music matters campaign are supported by Play.com, Itunes, Amazon, BT, Nokia music store, Spotify, Vidzone, 3, we7, Napster, Sky songs, HMV, Tesco, Vodafone, o2, Orange, T mobile.

Music industry

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Music industry

View more presentations from jawgeenahh.

Questionnaire: Music Institutions and Audiences

'The online revolution has proved as damaging to independent labels as to multinational companies'

There are many different labels around the world that have been dramatically affected by technology. As they invest in the artist’s music to provide them with an income and help promote and distribute them, this is affecting them due to the fact people can get music free from the Internet resulting into the labels loosing money. People used to have to wait for the bands or artists to release a record, tape or CD to listen to their music, not only did we have a CD the label also produced a booklet inside the case which held photos of the artist or lyrics from the songs. As technology has increased in recent years the craze for owning your CD has dropped as you can find songs on the Internet for free downloads, on the television, the radio. These can all be synced on to your mp3 player, ipod or any devices that can hold music. From this, the demand for CD’s have fallen increasingly, because of this the labels and artists are loosing money as internet sites such as Limewire or even YouTube convertor are allowing people to illegally download their music for free or sell their music for a much cheaper price e.g. Itunes. The online revolutions have damaged independent labels, such as Domino Label because they focus on a more of a traditional structure of dealing and promoting their artists of which are the best ways of making money. They do this by having other companies to set up the production for their artists such as the marketing and promotion and from this they are only managing with the song writing and their music sales of how they can improve and achieve more for their company. This is very different to how a multinational company works as they don’t just manage song writing and publishing they also deal with things such as promoting and marketing, recording, soundtracks, and equipment. As a multinational company employee well known artists they become a lot more popular where the audience are most likely to have heard or know them, this is so that they can perform a wide range of genres, as they have a better reputation, and from gaining this the artists are more likely to be asked to be on soundtracks for television programmes, adverts or films.

Convergence

Convergence is described in a way in which different technologies have come together in recent years

• radio/music
• television/video games/internet
• mobile phones/internet/music/photos (iphone-apps, video, camera, email, music) 

As the boundaries between media are beginning to blur e.g. producing programmes only available online, character blogs, communicating regularly, more reliable and keeps viewers up to date with details and different informations.

Audiences no longer perceive in media platforms as separate, due to technological convergence e.g. the internet is television and music for consumers. Convergence has changes the music industry dramatically as labels can now promote and distribute music directly to their listeners. E.g. Web 2.0: a way in which internet had changed over the oast 10 years. As now consumers can stream videos, music players, interactive features, upload and download. making ir more direct for the label.

- Convergence in the music industry creates instant access, meaning TV, and music are converging to increase sales e.g. Brittainia High, Glee and X-Factor illustrating the way in which synergy is supported by convergence. 

- Music and internet convergence: streaming and downloading e.g. Spotify, We7 and Vevo

What convergence does:

• narrows the gap between producers and audience 
• allows consumers instant access
• opens up opportunities for artist to promote
• offers free distribution: no need for it to be physically copied, transporter or packaged
• allows audiences to steal music 

Benefits and Damages to the music industry 

Advantages

• One benefit is that the cost of distribution has gone down due to the fact that the gap between the producer and the audience is falling, because there are many different ways of making music due to the growth in technology e.g. mp3 players, phones, computers etc. Resulting into more people purchasing and downloading music without actually having a CD, this has also helped the label as this is becoming more popular to download music straight to your phone or mp3 player the company have saved a lot of money from not having save on materials to package their CD’S
• Another advantage from this is that people have a faster and instant access to listen and find new bands and artist from their computers or phones.  The internet has a major part in way we have this easier access to music as they have produced sites such as We7 or Youtube which you can listen or download music for free making it easier and quicker to get what you want and can be available on many different deceives.
• From having instant access to artist music’s, this helps the bands or singers to promote their own music more by creating pages or profiles on social networking sties such as MySpace or Facebook where fans can give opinions and listen to music, see photos, videos and which will make them feel more personal to the artist. 

Disadvantages:

• A disadvantage in the music industry would be that programmes such as Limewire or uTorrent produce and give access to listeners their music for free, without paying for it. Which then you can direct save on your computer or device to use over and over again. Illegal downloads is losing money on record sales for the music industry as they are currently making 5% of revenue that they could be making if they different produce these sites. This would also affect the artist as when their music is being downloaded illegally the music is loosing its quality.

Domino Records

1. What differences do you notice between Domino and Universal in terms of artists and genres?
The difference between Domino and Universal are that they sign not well-known bands which means targetting a more of a niche market to a specific group of people.

2a) How would you describe Domino’s target audience(s)?
Domino records target audience is from 16 to 25 year old as the music seems alternative/indie music.
b) How does the label address and appeal to its audience?
The label appeals to it's audience by giving there listeners interviews, artist features, photo and video gallery, radio charts etc. This is useful to theire trarget audience as it is easier and quicker to find new bands and information. They also provide a shop and sell new releases of music that they sign and for people to listen for free, merchanise and tickets to gigs.

3a) Have you heard of any artists on their roster? Which ones?

• Animal Collective
• Arctic Monkeys
• Chief
• Franz Ferdinand
• Owen Pallett
• Sons and Daughters
• These New Puritans
• Villagers
• Wild Beasts

b) Why do you think a high profile artist might sign to Domino?
A high profile artist would probably sign to Domino because to gain more attention