Evaluation Question 3B

How would our products be distributed as real media products? 

In Film, there are the 'Big Six' (arguably big seven) which are the companies that dominate the industry. However, in the music industry, there are the 'Big Three'

This pie chart shows the World music market sales shares, according to IFPI (2005) This chart and information was sourced from Wikipedia. 

The Big Three are:  

• Universal Music Group
• 

• Sony BMG Music Entertainment
  

• Warner Music group

There are also:

• Independent Record Labels
• EMI (Until 2012)

So to clarify Market sales shares: 

-Universal: 25.5%

-Sony BMG: 21.5%

-Warner Music Group: 11.3%

-Independent: 28.4%

-EMI: 14.1%

Decrease in physical music, Increase in online music

In recent years, the demand for physical music/CDs has decreased, as music is becoming more and more easy to access online. Websites such as YouTube and Soundcloud and apps

like Spotify have enabled fans to listen to music and watch music videos for free. Since 2000, sales of recorded music have dropped off substantially while live music has increased in important. In 2011, the largest recorded music retailer in the world was Apple's online iTunes store. 

Competition in the music industry

When an industry goes from many to few competitors, it is called either Consolidation or Concentration of Ownership. An issue with concentration of ownership is that if there is no other competition, prices will rise. Evidence of this can be seen today with the CD industry. As there is less demand for CDs (due to the availability of music online) there is not a lot of competition, and therefore the price of CDs has risen a significant amount recently. 

Advertising

The American Cable company and satellite television network HBO (Home Box Office) has no advertising whatsoever. Because of this, they are allowed to broadcast far more explicit shows than other similar companies. This is because advertisers have a lot of control. They do not like their brand to be associated with shows that are explicit or negative, especially if they are considered a 'family friendly' brand. 

An example of this is Madonna. Madonna had a deal with Pepsi and was working with them. However, after she released the video for her song 'Like a Prayer', which was very explicit and controversial, they pulled out of the deal as they did not want their brand to be affected by the controversy surrounding her. 

Chomsky's 5 filter Theory:

This theory, which explains how propaganda and systematic biases function in mass media. The second filter in this theory is Advertising. Here is a useful explanation of the advertising filter, however this is using the example of newspapers.

Record labels 'dropping' acts

EMI signed the Sex Pistols, suddenly the band came under fire from politicians and the media. EMI dumped them immediately. Their song 'EMI' was written about this. 

Bring Me The Horizon

Bring me The Horizon's albums Sempiternal, and That's the Spirit are distributed by RCA which is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment.If our video was a real media product, it would be distributed by RCA too. I think this because these are considered their most successful albums and we would hopefully like to continue this success with this album.