Popular music
Reading: Key terms/definitions:
Media 1. Minstrel show:
Today, - A touringshow popular in
Chapter 10, the mid- nineteenth
The century, in which
Recording performers dressed up in
Industry special “blackface”
makeup, made jokes, and
sang songs that, though
supposedlydrawn from
“black songfests,” actually
had little to do with the
African-American lifestyles
and rhythms they claimed
to mimic
2. Vaudeville show:
- A touring show comprising
several types of acts that
were popular inthe United
States from the late
nineteenth century through
the 1920s
3. Gramophone
- Chichester bell and Charles
Tainter’s 1885 modification
of Edison’s phonograph,
which featured a wax
cylinder rather than a tin
foil cylinder for recording
and playback
4. Label
Arguments & Examples Significance:
1. The advent of the record player 1. Music constantly
- The phonograph, the first device that could invents and reinvents
record and play back sound was first itself e.g. Nirvana
invented by Thomas Edison in 1877.
- In 1887, Emile Berliner then invented the 2. It can bring us a lot
gramophone, though the quality of playback of emotions but it
was not as good as that of Edison’s cylinder. has become a very
- In 1912, American interest in recorded commercialized
music had grown tremendously. The annual form. It is not just a
production of phonographs grew from form of content for
150,000 in 1899 to 500,000 in 1914. In other forms of media
1910, at least 20 million records were sold. or a commercial
- Records CHANGED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY as commodity, but it
it made sheet-music much less important. also has this aspect
of emotional
2. Records and the rise of radio connection. We can
- A large part of the development of be deeply connected
commercial radio in the 1920s involved to some music. We
playing music over the airwaves  initially have to ask why we
this scared record companies who were are so connected to
worried that radio might discourage the music in some
purchase of recorded music  this came moods.
true to a certain extent as by the mid- 3.
1920s, people listened to the radio instead
of buying disks.
- There were, however, some types of music
that radio stations wouldn’t play: jazz,
blues, hillbilly music, ethnic songs, and
other compositions that executives did not
consider refined enough to broadcast. That
- A division of a recording
firm that releases a certain
type of music and reflects
a certain personality
5. Format
- The personality of a station
organized around the kind
of music it plays, andthe
radio personalities whoare
hired to introduce the
recordings and
advertisements.
6. Single
- A product that contains
only one or two individual
music recordings
7. Digital platform
- Vehicle for receiving digital
information; a computer,
mobile phone, and iPad are
three digital platforms for
downloading music
8. Streaming
- An audio file delivered to a
computer-like device from
a website so that it can be
heard while it is coming
into the device but cannot
be saved or stored
9. Internet radio
- Pre-chosen music streams
based around certain
practice created opportunities for record
producers. African-Americans were
particularly avid record buyers; records of
the black “torch” singer Bessie Smith are
said to have kept Columbia afloat.
- Music publishers and composers started to
think of radio as a new source of income
and as a platform for publicizing songs and
encouraging the sales of records.
3. Rethinking radio and recordings 1950-1980
- To draw advertisers, radio executives
decided to go after specific local audience
segments by devoting most of their
airtime to broadcasting music that
those segments would tune in to hear.
Playing records was inexpensive compared
with creating drama or comedy or
adventure series. Often record companies
would send records to the radio stations for
free, in the hope that the stations would
play them and their listeners would buy
them.
- As a result, radio stations developed
formats, and the increasingly specific
formats of radio stations enabled record
promoters to target their intended
audiences much more carefully than before.
 College radio stations, for example,
became useful vehicles for introducing
“alternative” music, which most
commercial stations would not touch
 genres—for example jazz
or classical—provided free
of charge to listeners and
paid for by commercial
advertisements, much like
a radio station
10. Artist and repertoire
- Describes the function of
screening new musical acts
for a recording company
and determining whetheror
not to sign these acts; the
record executives consider
it their duty to shape
artists by choosing the
collection of songs (their
repertoire) to be played or
sung by the artist
11. Royalty
- The share of money paid to
a songwriter or music
composer out of the money
that the production firm
receives from the sale or
exhibition ofa work.
12. Promotion
- The processof scheduling
publicity appearances for a
recording artist, with the
goal of generating
excitement about the
artist, and thereby sales of
until it had sold well in stores.
4. Music in the 1980s and 1990s
- The spread of cable television in the 1980s
provided an opportunity for recording
companies to reach target audiences
beyond radio. At the forefront of cable
music were MTV and VH1, two cable
networks owned by the same firm (Viacom)
that played nonstop music videos supplied
by music companies. MTV pioneered the
twenty-four-hour music video approach in
the early 1980s.
- CD was developed and brought to the
market in 1983  led to CD piracy
becoming rampant, but the spread of the
internet in the late 1990s marked the start
of uploaded music for all to share.
- So, although recording firms still saw radio
as the major promotional medium for their
business, they worried that the new
technologies would reduce the sales that
might result from their promotional work
because people could get the music off
pirated CDs and the Web and pay little or
nothing at all.
5. An overview of the modern recording
industry
- International ownership
 Music is now owned by companies
 his or her album
13. Rack jobber
- A company contracted by a
department store to
maintain its rack of
records, tapes, CDs, and/or
DVDs
14. Piracy
- The unauthorized
duplication of copyrighted
material for profit
15. Counterfeiting
- The unauthorized
duplication of copyrighted
music and packaging, with
the goal of making the
copy appear authentic for
sale
16. Bootlegging
- The unauthorized
recording of a music
performance, and the
subsequent distribution of
that recording
that are global/international in nature
and not just from the US.
 E.g. Sony BMG Music Entertainment is
a global joint venture equally owned
by German Bertelsmann AG and the
U.S. subsidiary of Sony of Japan.
- Fragmented production
 Production is fragmented because
there are thousands of companies
always turning out recordings they
would like to sell, but these recording
companies are independents and not
owned by any of the major recording
companies.
 One reason for the rise of
independent firms is that newly
affordable powerful personal digital
recording technology has enabled
small companies to produce compact
disks. The availability of this
technology has led to a flood of
independent recordings. Many small
production firms circulate their
products to stores or sell them directly
on the Web or at concerts instead of
hooking up with the major
distributors.
- Concentration of distribution
 However many independents there
are, the four major recording
 companies are still distributors of
choice because of the power they
bring to the marketplace.
 Being large organizations, they are
able to spend a lot of money to push
artists that their executives believe
have promise. In fact, these
distributors insist that their size and
their strong international presence
give them a stature and credibility
that make them the distributors of
choice.

6. Unique features of the recording industry

- When it comes to age, the record industry
targets its marketing to young people
because traditionally they have bought
more recordings than people in other age
groups. According to the RIAA, people aged
from 15 to 24 years accounted for 21
percent of the spending on recordings in the
United States in 2008.
- Sales of singles VS albums
 According to Nielsen SoundScan, in
2008 U.S. consumers bought more
than a billion digital single tracks, but
only 65 million digital albums. Total
album sales (including physical
product) declined by 14 percent in
2008 over 2007.6 Although the sale of
singles is impressive, recording
 executives worry about the decline in
album sales because their firms have
a harder time maintaining profits
when consumers buy single songs
instead of albums.

7. Production and the recording industry

- The point person in a recording company for
signing new artists is the label’s A&R
person. A&R stands for artist and
repertoire, a term that dates back to the
time when record executives saw
themselves as shaping artists by choosing
the collection of songs that an artist played
or sang.
 Today, the function of the A&R person
is to screen new acts for a firm and
determine whether or not to sign
those acts.
- Finding music to record
 There are several ways for an artist or
group to find music. Music publishing
companies maintain catalogs of
songs, and many record stores sell
printed copies of music, usually
intended to be played on a guitar or
piano. When an artist uses any song
in these libraries commercially, the
songwriters and their publishing
companies expect to be paid royalties.
- Producing a record
  The producer is responsible for
obtaining copyright clearances, lining
up session musicians if needed,
staying on budget, and delivering a
high-quality master tape to the record
company. An important first task for a
producer is to line up a good place to
record. Studios with good equipment
and good engineers can be found all
over the world, and producers
carefully select a studio where the
artist will be comfortable and
productive.
 Independent labels generally have
even more restrictive artistic
contracts than the majors do.
Contracts with independent labels are
for a longer period than those with the
majors, provide lower royalty rates
than those of the majors, require the
artists to share the copyright on songs
with the labels, and may even
demand a share of the artists’
merchandising monies.

8. Distribution in the recording industry

- A label brings cross-media exposure to an
artist’s career. This is because getting the
ears of powerful concert promoters, radio
program executives, and cable gatekeepers
 who select music for large, though targeted,
audiences is a task that requires a strong
organization with much experience.
- As in other mass media industries, having
good distribution avenues does not ensure
that a recording will be a hit. Without the
strong ability to place recordings in stores
and other exhibition areas, however, the
chances that a recording will be a hit
diminish considerably. And having a hit with
a major label builds on itself so that the
label can make a deal for the kind of
visibility on MySpace and other music sites
that a band without a marketing power
behind it would not have.
- Distribution does not simply mean being
able to send recordings to a store. Although
major firms such as Universal send
recordings to their biggest retail clients
directly, many of their albums, singles, and
videos end up in stores through huge
wholesalers. The wholesalers work with all
the majors as well as with independent
distribution firms that handle some of the
recordings produced by independent
companies. The real distribution power of
the Big Four and the other major producer-
distributors lies in their ability to generate a
buzz among an artist’s potential fans that
will induce retailers to carry his or her
records and display them properly.
9. The importance of promoting music
- Promotion may also include cooperative
advertising, which means that the recording
firm provides a retailer with a portion of the
money the retailer needs in order to buy
space in local newspapers or time on local
radio and TV stations. All this may sound
easy, but in the competitive media
environment it is extremely difficult.
Recording firms have particular difficulty
motivating people to buy the albums of new
groups because people need to hear music
before they buy it.
- Music promoters also face the problem of
competition. In any given week, a station
may add only one new song to its playlist,
whereas the various record labels may have
a dozen new songs that they believe fit the
station’s format.
- Knowing that radio stations use various
pieces of data to make decisions on airplay,
record executives have to work hard to get
the airplay in certain markets and on
particular stations that will convince
program directors on the largest stations to
insert a song into a playlist rotation. There
are many ethical ways of doing that. The
enormous pressure to succeed in radio has
also led to unethical tactics. There are
reports, for example, that record company
 representatives have organized campaigns
to flood stations with requests for a
particular song.
- An even more unsavory activity aimed at
placing songs on radio stations is payola—
the payment of money by a promotion
executive to a station program director to
ensure that the program director includes
certain music on the playlist. In the late
1950s, the federal government made payola
illegal. However, things like this still
continue.
- Most record labels have websites where you
can read about your favorite artists,
download photos, hear snippets of new
songs, and sometimes even listen to these
songs in their entirety. More controversially,
record executives have been known to pay
teens to spread buzz in chat rooms and
through emails about an artist the company
is trying to promote.

10. Exhibition in the recording industry

- Recordings make it into the hands of the
public through six major paths:
 Digital downloads
 It can mean a variety of
activities: Downloading a single
or album from the Web, doing
that from a kiosk, downloading a
music video or downloading
ringtones or paying subscription
 for streaming music via sites.
 In 2007, digital downloads
represented 23% of total sales.
 Internet stores
 Internet stores are online sites
that sell CDs and mail them to
the buyer—think of
http://www.amazon.com (the
clear leader),
http://www.lala.com,
http://www.ebay. com, and
many more. With their
efficiency, low costs, and wide
selection, these virtual places
seem to be taking away
business from physical retailers.
 Whereas in 2003 they
constituted 5 percent of record
sales, according to the RIAA, in
2008 the number had nearly
tripled to 14.6 percent.

 Traditional record stores

 By 2008, the percentage of
sales linked to record stores had
slid to 30% and the decline can
be blamed on other physical
retail stores and internet stores.
 Other retail stores
 The phrase “other retail stores”
refers to any legitimate
 emporium that sells records
along with other items.
Department stores do that, as
do electronics, clothing, and
truck stops. In 2008, this
category represented 28.4
percent of all recorded music
sales. Chains such as Best Buy,
Barnes & Noble, Newbury
Comics, and Gray Whale sell lots
of CDs, with a fairly wide range
of titles.
 Many retail shops do not
actually run their own record
department. Instead, they farm
out the section to an
intermediary known in the
business as a rack jobber.

 Record clubs
 Another major way to
distribute recordings is
through clubs such as
Columbia House. RIAA data
indicate that these clubs have
gone up and down in recent
years, from 4.1 percent in
2003 to 12.6 percent in 2006
and then down to 7.2 percent
in 2008.
 It’s hard to know if the
economic recession was a
 factor in the most recent
downturn. Record clubs do
encourage long-term
consistent purchases.
Individuals are enticed into
joining these clubs by
newspaper or magazine ads
offering low-cost introductory
specials, such as seven CDs
for 1 cent.
 Members also sometimes
agree to buy a certain number
of albums later at the regular
price. Often artists receive a
lower royalty on sales of
recordings through these
clubs.

 Direct sales
 Direct sales account for just 1.8
percent of all revenues.
Products sold through the
“direct” channel frequently are
compilations of old songs on
such themes as Christmas
hymns or the greatest disco
hits.

11. Two major public controversies

- Concerns over lyrics
 For decades, recording companies,
artists, and stores have been pelted
with complaints from parents and
teachers around the country that their
children are purchasing music with
lyrics unsuitable for the children’s—
and maybe some parents’—ears.
 The anger succeeded in leading major
recording companies to put parental
advisory labels on albums that warned
parents about objectionable lyrics.
 As a result, some recording firms
resorted to distributing two versions
of an album: one with safer, censored
lyrics and the original one that the
musician intended to distribute.
- What supporters of gangsta rap say:
 Many of rap’s defenders have
responded that outsiders should not
impose their values on an important
field of artistic endeavor. Rappers,
they have said, reflect views that
many angry African-Americans have
about their surroundings; such hard-
edge views need to be heard and
understood, they argue. During the
past few years, though, even rap’s
defenders have acknowledged that
sometimes the lyric writers aim for
the obscene, the violent, and the
 derogatory, simply to stand out.

- Concerns about access to music:

 The counterfeiting of CDs and the
bootlegging of concerts take place on
a huge scale around the world. Most
experts consider China the center of
counterfeiting, but the sale of illegally
created CDs takes place everywhere.
In the United States, many people
seem to have no problem buying what
they know are counterfeited products,
including music CDs.
 Although the counterfeiting of
physical albums and the creation of
bootlegged concert CDs remain a big
problem, it is the illegal
downloading of music around the
world that has record executives
particularly challenged.
 Because of piracy, music companies
lose a lot of money.
 What the music industry is doing to
counter this:
 The industry is moving against
this problem on a number of
fronts, including raids and legal
actions against people
suspected of pirating CDs.
 The industry has also enlisted
the help of the U.S. government
 to influence governments
around the world to clamp down
on the pirating of American
albums offline and online.
 Inside the United States, the
RIAA has embarked on a highly
controversial activity. It has
initiated lawsuits against people
who it determines—through
analysis of Web files—have
uploaded lots of music for
others to share. In fact, from
September 2003 through
September 2007 it initiated
more than 21,000 lawsuits.
Many of these have been
against college students, who
have been involved in P2P
activities using their schools’
high-speed networks. Users who
download music illegally face
fines for each song, which can
quickly add up to thousands of
dollars.
- People who support the spreading of
music on the Web:
 (1) Struggling recording artists and
those who are still trying to find a
label and make a name for
themselves might well have a
different viewpoint from established
ones about some of these issues. For
 one thing, these players and singers
are likely to resent the power that just
a few large firms have over the music,
and the musicians, that are heard in
the United States and much of the
rest of the world. They realize that,
although music may be fragmented at
the production end, it is highly
concentrated at the distribution end,
and it is likely to remain that way.
Unlike the established artists, they
may see the big recording companies
not as allies but as enemies who are
keeping them out of the distribution
pipeline.
 Hence, they would be very happy at
the prospect of the Web weakening
these companies’ power.
 (2) Artists starting out will also
welcome the Internet, as they can
place their material on websites much
more easily than they could place it
on radio. They make most of their
living through the concerts they give,
and they may see the pirating of their
albums as great publicity that will
translate into the kind of popularity
that will lead people to pay to hear
them at concerts.
- How consumers feel about piracy:
 Many consumers care little about the
 problems that the recording
companies and their stars have with
piracy. In fact, millions of people act
as if sharing copyrighted music with
millions of other people on the Web is
not a legal or ethical issue.
 Many consumers feel that albums are
often rip-offs; that to buy two or three
of a group’s songs they must
purchase an album that also includes
eight or nine other songs that are not
terribly good. Consumers therefore
have developed no loyalty to or
concern for the firms and have no
qualms about picking the songs that
they really want off the Web without
paying for them. The industry, they
say, ought to try to understand what
consumers want and respond to their
interests.