Music Business
...of rock n' roll stars, agents and producers. While this is true, if you look further you will see that there are many more areas that go to make up the music industry. In addition to the well-known and desirable jobs of pop-star, producer, agent, songwriter, recording technician, and even roadie', the music industry also includes record and CD manufacturers, publishers, A&R people, pluggers and marketers, DJs, radio stations, record shops, royalty collection agencies, and many others.
The tug-of-war involving plummeting recording budgets and less expensive equipment is now a major concern to the record labels. In the mid-90's, the price of creating recorded music dropped because of new, cheaper recording equipment. A few years later, the average manufacturing price of a release also drooped due to cheaper CD manufacturing and internet downloads. Here is when the selling price should have dropped as a natural result. But, the gluttonous record company's didn't lower their retail prices and conspired to fix prices at their peak levels. How long did the record companies think that they could get away with this obvious exploitation' of music fans??
The old 'budget model" was to spend the majority of an album's cash on marketing. For major releases, that often meant that 90% of profits from sales went to advertising, making ludicrously expensive videos and paying for airplay. Lavish lifestyles of executives and their top pop stars were incorporated as a "general overhead" of running a label. Most people are surprised to learn that only a tiny percentage of the generated revenue went towards creating the music and recording the actual tracks in the studio, and this was paid for out of the ARTISTS' share. If there was anything left after all these expenses, AND the record company had already taken a profit, the artist would get what's left. Mmmm....
View Full Essay
