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Introduction to studying the music industry for G322
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Unit G322
Part A: Textual Analysis and Representation
Part B: Audiences & Institutions
The Music Industry
Institution Audience
Production Distribution
MarketingExchange/Exhibition
Consumption Reception
We’ll start with the audience (you).
• How do you consume music?
• What is your attitude towards the music industry?
• Watch the following clip – recap your textual analysis and representation skills by analysing what clichés of the music ‘industry’ are presented?
The Industry
• In simplest possible terms, what is the job of the music industry?
A record company gets the music from the artist to the
audience.
Record Labels – an overview
• Major labels- these will often be linked to a distributor.
• Major distributed Independents – a small, often specialist label that uses its links to a major label for distribution.
• True Independent – an independent label that doesn’t use a major distributor but provides this service for itself.
The first step
• The record company must find a record.– A record is defined as an audiovisual entity,
not as the format on which it appears. Therefore a ‘record’ can be:
• A CD• A music video• An internet download
FACT: Records used to be made individually with the artist performing again and again for each ‘copy’.
Finding an artist
• Imagine you are a record company executive. Around the room are various profiles of artists on offer. Which would you chose and why? Think about the band’s marketability and, from a music industry perspective, their profitability!
The Deal
• Now you have chosen a band to work with, you must make a deal with them.
• We will discuss three major parts of record deals. We’ll keep it simplistic for now. You will then formulate a deal based on them.
• The areas are– Royalties– Advances– Reserve against returns
Royalties
• Royalties are the share of record sales that the artist gets paid.
• They are a percentage of the WHOLESALE price of the record (the price at which the record is sold to the record shops.)
• Each percent is known, in the industry, as a ‘point’.
Royalties
• An artist with a ten point deal will get ten percent of the wholesale price of each record sold to shops.
• So, if 10,000 records are sold at a wholesale price of £10 each, the artist makes…
£10 x 10% = £1
£1 x 10,000 sales = £10,000
The advance
• Record companies will stump the cash for recording the album, alongside a lump sum paid to the artist for signing with them.
• This sum is always contracted to be recouped (re-taken) against the royalties that the artist earns.
• So if an artist has a £20,000 advanced on a ten point deal they need to sell 20,000 records before they start making any money.
• Recording costs are also recouped against royalties. There are many bands that do not make much money!
The Reserve
• Record shops can return unsold records to the label for a refund – often 100% (this is more complicated in practice though).
• When a label takes on a new band, or pays for a new album, there is always a risk that it won’t sell and many of the records will be returned.
• The label must therefore ensure that they don’t lose out big time.
The Reserve
• Until the label knows that a record is selling, they will keep a percentage of the royalties payable to a band (in addition to the recouping the advance.)
• The percentage of royalties kept as a reserve is based on the likelihood of the record selling.
• When the record has been proven to sell, the reserve is returned to the band. This is known as ‘liquidating the reserve’.
The Deal
• Your deal must explicitly set out the numbers and percentages for these three areas.
• Remember, if your artists don’t write their own material, you will have a separate contract with the songwriters that you use. Your label may have some writers on the payroll though. But this will definitely affect the way you pay your new signing.
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