Research for Music Video: State of the Music Industry 2011

There is a contrasting difference between the music industry now and ten years ago.

Production: The process of the making of the music and the recording has changed. Back then there wasn't as much focus on the artist itself but on the quality of the music. The industry was very established and professional because you could only record in a studio and analog sounds would be produced.

Now there is much more focus on the style of the artist and for them to be relevant with the changing genres and there are a lot more artists to each genre now. Therefore artists will record songs more often in order to stay current and for their image to keep up with the audiences' expectations. Recording now produces digital sounds and can be recorded anywhere, as many artists can record songs in their bedrooms.

Distribution: The way music gets to people and how we know about it is really different. Before most people only had channels 1 to 5, so there wasn't any music channels to advertise music videos. Music was mainly listened to on the radio and advertised by posters on the street, or most popularly different artists would perform live on shows such as Top of the Pops.

Now online video websites like Youtube are very popular, as they show videos worldwide and allows audiences to view the same videos. There are also loads of music channels such as MTV that show official music videos to advertise them in the chart run-downs. Videos and artists are also highly advertised on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook many users share videos with their friends to increase recognition and on Twitter, artists can promote their music directly to their fans and message them.


Exchange: This has changed heavily over the years, this is where the people who own the music and how it changes hands to us the audience so that we can listen to it. Then fans would listen to the music on the radio or purchase it as CD records or to make the sound more authentic then on Vinyl. The music industry would then profit by this, as they would make money from selling the physical product.

Now due to the emergence of new technology there are many illegal online websites in which you can download songs and albums for free. Therefore the industry suffers because they are not making money from the physical product or from legal downloads such as iTunes. This way the industry has to make money through other revenues such as concert tours and guest appearances on television shows.