Share Market Shares Of The Music Industry example essay topic

Edi K. THE MUSIC INDUSTRY - GLOBALIZING IN MANY WAYS The music industry is in a time of growth at this very moment. The environment for its growth has been increasing rapidly on many geographical boundaries and has been established through information technology and Internet. In this paper I will analyze how the music industry not only has been affected by Globalization as an economic institution but also that it has become a worldwide-globalized commodity. First, I will begin by analyzing how the music industry, though its consumption is not a necessity, it is affected by large economic factors and has become a large Music Market. Furthermore I will analyze how the music market has globalizing tendencies for the consumers.

People get into their cars and listen to music, you walk into a shopping center and they are playing music; walk into a restaurant and they are playing music too, people listen to music in their work place as well. Runners listen to music as they exercise, you can even listen to music while you are sitting on the dentist chair. Everybody listens to music! Everywhere at anytime!

Try to go on line and among other links on Travel, Stock Quotes, Sports or Entertainment, you " ll find a link on Music. There are so many companies that advertise music on line. Every day mass emails are sent that offer music on line. Did you know you can get 12 CDs for only one penny? All you have to do is join one of the online music distributors: it doesn't matter whether is BMG or Columbia House, the 'package' is the same. It doesn't matter either if you are in the United States or not, they deliver internationally!

Music is not a necessity but everybody is using it. Kadi 2 The production and consumption of music has become a market of its own that has been growing and getting stronger every single day. Many companies have found their fortune in the music industry and have become part of the globalization by entering the worldwide market and economy. The following is a table of some Economics data of Popular Music in 1996 Netherlands United States United Kingdom Revenues recordable's, gross (US $) 660,100,000 12,297,700,000 2,709,800,000 Total Sales, recordable's (pieces) 38,000,000 1,044,800,000 234,500,000 Sales Recordable, per capita (US $) 42.6 46.3 46.4 Concerts (Dutch guilders) 550,000,000 n. a n. a (Source: National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), 1997. International Survey Of Music Publishing Revenues. New York: NMPA.) The popular music industry in the late 1990's 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 different consumers. Then the final product is introduced to the public through many mediums: super markets, music stores, on-line stores and others. The major 7 Record Companies that control the music market, with their nation of origin and reported 1990 sales are: EMI (Thorn U.K., $1.88 billion), Warner (Time Warner, U.S., $2.9 billion), BMG (Bertelsmann Media Group, Kadi 3 Germany, $2 billion), Polygram (Netherlands / Germany, $2.6 billion), MCA (U.S., $1 billion), Virgin (U.K., $500 million) and Sony (Japan, $3 billion), total 1990 sales $13.88 billion; which all of them share market-shares of the Music Industry.

Much of the music industry for the past decade has been controlled by many technological developments and Internet; and remarkably on line music revenues have been expected to increase from $179 million in 1998 to $2,800 million in 2002, or almost eight percent of the total industry. More people then before now own CD players, MP 3 players and the number of CD players and PCs for household has been growing; thing that has created a demand for more music products. More copies of CDs are put into the market, not only of popular artists and bands, but of anybody who made it into the recording stage. There has been a vast demand for music, and its availability is increasing and becoming much easier and faster to obtain; new forms of music have been emerging and will continue to emerge quickly; and it has become very hard to control these developments. One reason for this is that record stores no longer have as much power in deciding what we listen to. Before, they would only sell the most popular styles of music, which would guarantee them a good profit.

Many artists or bands whose records would not normally be sold or found in a normal popular music store are now finding exposure through other mediums. Mitchell and Stahl said that music that once would only attract a minor audience might now develop a much broader and diverse audience. If in the past years, only some of the people could afford to buy the recent CDs offered in the market, now a larger audience can get a hold of virtually every song ever recorded via Internet access. The consumption of music has been taking a new direction for the past years. Kadi 4 Thanks to new technologies, this diverse audience - or consumers of music, have become less dependent on TV stations, radios or magazines when it comes to finding out about recent developments on the music industry. If in the past the consumers had to stay in tune to listen to the news on TV or buy a magazine, now all they need is access to the internet and they can find out at any time what artist or band is releasing their new CDs, the cost and why not the lyrics of the songs.

The Internet has become an easier and cheaper way of finding, sharing and creating alternative sources of information about the music industry. Fischer said that even retrieving audio and video from the Internet has become and will become increasingly easy, many will continue to be interested in buying authentic physical products such as CDs. This new 'virtual' economy will not substitute entirely for the 'physical' economy; the historical record certainly proves that no new technology ever completely substitutes entirely for an old. A good example of this is the continuing sales of vinyl records both new and old (new vinyl records of new releases and old vinyl records of favorite artist or songs). Also all of today's Techno DJs rely on vinyl tracks to mix their ever-growing popular style of dance music, which range from Hip Hop, House and Trance.

Another reason that people might continue to buy CDs or vinyl records and even cassette tapes, is that some consumers are limited to cyder space access, and that also not every car comes with a CD player, let alone MP 3 player. Sales of traditional media via Internet may even grow, providing a means for traditional sources to maintain their positions and reputations in the 'virtual' world. Kadi 5 Through the Internet more music will be available, perhaps new kinds or genres may emerge, and maybe musicians might see their financial situations improve in the future, with much more sales and advertising's thanks to the new technology developments. Many small record labels are also seeing an increase in sales as they are being found more easily through their web pages and mailing lists. The revenues for the music corporation as a worldwide entity will grow faster and the consumption of music will continue to globalize the music industry along with the rest of other industries. This brings another argument to the globalization of music.

It is true the music market is moving ahead and its economy is growing, but also this market has been attracting consumers not only where the major music corporations are located, but has been attracting customers from all over the world. It has been uniting and bringing consumers close to modern popular American music. You can go to any country outside the United States and American music is sold there and consumed. Try to go on any foreign website, Latino, Japanese or Samoan and among many titles you " ll find names like Eric Clapton, Madonna, Matchbox 20 and many others. Buy any Latino Teen magazine and the latest fashion is the Britney Spears or Backstreet Boys look. Is it possible that traditional music and genres of each country will survive in an age of globalization and melting identities?

Eric Friedman, a world-pioneering violinist, stated: "The wonderful aspect about music is that it doesn't know religion, country or language, it only knows humanity. Music is an emotional microcosm. To preserve local music, you need to educate people about it". Music, like almost any other commodity, has lent itself to Globalization. And globalization is upon it. Kadi 6 Many countries have adopted American music and accepted it as part of the globalization.

Rasheed Al Roussan, a writer for STAR wrote: "It is no doubt that the "G" word, or globalization, has brought Bill Gates to the Middle East, the Internet to South Africa, McDonald's to Saudi Arabia-all that is new has replaced all that is traditional. Music, in accordance, has become a globalized commodity that is being sold like hotcakes. It is a battle of values. But we shouldn't look at music as the opium of people.

On the contrary, music has played a catalyst role on the human development". The people all over the world are being globalized by the consumption of music. For many children, the songs are their first introduction to the westernized world and for many of them these songs become their first lessons of English language, the international language. Through the music that the global clientele all over the world listens to, it welcomes the "G" word within and becomes part of it.

Music, this new commodity, is helping the world to become a global marketplace as well as bringing the consumers into an unexpected globalization. The music industry is spreading far and wide across the globe bringing people of all countries, cultures and races together by the sounds of American popular music.

Bibliography

Mitchell, 1997.
New Zealand Music on the Internet: A Study of the NZ POP Mailing List", Perfect Beat, Volume 3, number 2, pp. 77-95. G. Stahl, 1997.
Citing the Sound: New Zealand Indie Rock in North America", Perfect Beat, volume 3, number 2, pp. 60-76. National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), 1997.
New York: NMPA. Music & Copyright, 27 August 1997.
R. Burnett, 1993.
The Popular Music industry in transition. Popular Music and Society, pp. 141-143. Al Roussan, Rasheed. September 2000, web Fischer, 1992.
America calling: A social History of the telephone to 1940.