Impact Of Recording, Publishing And Live Music On The And Global Music Industry

Music as an industry has developed drastically over the last few decades. These changes have occurred in the three main sectors that structure the UK music industry- Recording, Live and Publishing. I will be identifying how these changes arose and in what ways they have contributed to the music industry today. The introduction of Napster in 1999 and their 50 million users per month allowed the shift in the industry to take place and encouraged other companies to find new means of distribution and business models (Gammons, 2011).

Living in the age of the internet has allowed the music industry to progress at a much quicker pace, as the introduction to streaming platforms and online distribution of music has contributed hugely to the UK music industry. According to Phonographic Industry (BPI), the rise of subscriptions in streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Deezer rose by +34.9% in 2018, which shows a dramatic increase of 220% in revenues over the last 3 years. Streaming is now worth nearly £500 million and accounts for 60% of income. This compared to physical formats such as CD’s has dropped by 22.5%, however vinyl sales continue to grow, generating £57.1 million in 2018 which has shown a 3.7% increase on the year (BPI, 2019). The future of the recording music industry looks promising as the internet has allowed for new artists to emerge overnight and has made it easily accessible for fans to discover these artists on Spotify and Apple Music playlists. Geoff Taylor, the Chief Executive of the BPI has stated that “the recorded music industry in the UK is showing consistent growth, driven by investment in new talent, innovative global marketing, and offering music fans outstanding choice, convenience and value” (BPI, 2019).

The development of the recording industry is equally dependent on new recording technologies. These new technologies have cut the cost of production and manufacturing as it has become easier for individuals to record and play music in their homes using a DAW, rather than renting and paying for recording studio’s. Old style of recording a record involved expensive and hard to understand audio equipment which needed an expert to understand, however computer software such as Logic Pro X and ProTools have made it easy to understand (Agrawal, 2016). Digital technology has created a low- cost worldwide distribution and has cut down the cost of recording, as home recording has made many different samples, from drum beats to entire orchestras, available to artists to produce a commercially acceptable record at the fraction of the price compared to a generation ago (Gordon, 2011). David Browne for Rolling Stone magazine stated that “in order to satisfy fans who’ve grown up with the internet, musicians are expected to churn out new material as quickly as possible” (2012). A great example of this is Ariana Grande, who released two albums in the space of six months. Her album Sweetener was released in August 2018, followed by Thank U, Next in February 2019 which earned 307 million audio streams in its first week in the US alone (Billboard, 2019). Digital technology has made it possible for an artist to distribute their music freely, record their music inexpensively and bypass labels entirely.

UKMusic recorded a 5% increase in overall Gross Value Added for the UK music industry, showing that the recording sector generated £615 million, £283 million more than 2014 (2015). Record labels have undergone a huge shift in dynamic, as more artists are releasing music independently and receiving more exposure and success. Although they have been struggling due to new technology and the internet, the introduction of 360 deals have been beneficial to growth and maintenance of the recording sector. In the past, record companies focused on making money from selling records in vinyl, cassette and CD format and, artists were able to keep all earnings made from live performances, endorsements, and music publishing. The 360 deal is an exclusive contract between a record company and artist in which the record company shares monies from their recorded music, label shares in other income streams such as touring and live performance, merchandise, endorsements, appearances on television and film, and if the artist writes songs, publishing (Gordon, 2015). As for the benefits of having a 360 deal, there are also a few controversies. The fact that record labels have survived so long without having these deals shows that they are failing to manage their business and they are not reacting properly to the changing industry (McDonald, 2018). More artists are collaborating with each other independently, as they want complete freedom over their music and what happens with their work. In an article for The Fader, Chance the Rapper mentioned how he respectfully turned down major labels in an attempt to make it all about his music, touring vigorously and doing what he wants with his time off (2015).

The rise of social media platforms has benefited the recording industry as it has become a necessary part in music marketing due to its power to deliver information to anyone at any given time. Most popular platforms are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As technology develops further, knowledge and accessibility to equipment develops. This development allows space for collaboration, there is no need to rent billboards or print flyers for promotion as it can easily be done online (Agrawal, 2017). Record labels have had to be really creative with the way they make money through their artists, as streaming does not pay huge royalties, the idea of endorsements has come into play. Artists can make huge amounts of money from sales of merchandise at huge arena shows, and also through “branding” on TV shows such as American Idol and The X Factor. According to industry experts, the primary way to maximize money in the music business is to turn the artist into a brand- then do everything in one’s power to maximize the brand’s value. For example, Beyoncé earnt $115 million between July 2013 and July 2014 from endorsing companies such as H&M, Pepsi, releasing a line of fragrances and her own clothing company House of Dereon (Gordon, 2015).

The introduction of copyright to the music industry has allowed for a vast change in the way musicians are now paid for their work. The 1988 Copyright act details that copyright of musical work begins once a piece of music is created, documented or recorded. Your rights as a copyright owner gives you the authority to copy, issue, lend or rent copies of the music to the public, perform, show or play the music in public and broadcast the music to the public through TV, radio and internet (PRS, 2019).

There are three copyrights in a composition- The Composer (music), Author (lyrics) and Sound Recording (mechanical copyright). The duration of copyright in musical or literary work lasts for seventy years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies. To gain publishing rights, one must establish that the words and music are original and that they have been recorded in some way. This could be sheet music, with the words written down, or a demo of someone singing the words and music. (Harrison, 2017). In 2013, the sound recording rights were extended to seventy years also. Sound recording rights are generally owned by the record company, however, if a recording is not communicated to the public then the copyright lasts for 50 years from when the recording was made.

It is currently illegal to make an extra mechanical copy of a sound recording without paying for it- this includes recording vinyl to cassette, to downloading a track onto your hard-drive and transferring it to your device (Norton, 2019).

Money is generated through mechanical licenses and royalties which remains a major source of income for songwriters rather than it being out in the public for free. Putting the power in the songwriter’s hands rather than publishing companies has been a major change in the publishing company (Kawashima, 2015).

The International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) stated that private copying is seriously affecting the profitability of the phonogram and videogram industries. In general, the loss of revenue has implications for future investment, employment, talent development and so on. In particular, people are getting pleasure from music- makers who are getting nothing back in return. The whole point of copyright is to ensure that the author- it’s ‘absolute owner’, is duly rewarded for other people’s enjoyment of that work- without such rewards there would be no economic incentive to make musical or literary works in the first place. (Frith, 1988).

Today, several initiatives have been born from the development of music publishing. Performance rights organizations such as the Performing Rights Society (PRS), mechanical rights from Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Pandora etc, mechanical rights for physical sales and digital downloads, synchronization rights, print/ lyrics/ sheet music and other royalties have been introduced to make sure artists and authors are being paid correctly for their work. The ultimate goal has been to help songwriters receive the most amount of money from their work (Sutharshana, 2018).

As the industry grew, the role of a publisher slowly weakened. Artists became more in control of their own music and it became harder for publishers to get artists to record songs written by dedicated writers and lyricists. Publishers stopped signing writers who had no way of helping them in the industry and instead started signing more self- contained writer/ artists and producers who would help their career. Publishers and managers have had to step into the gap of A&R development to help secure writers/ artists at a more reasonable rate and to help guide their growth. Music publishers are concerned with administering copyrights, licensing songs to record companies and others, and collecting royalties on behalf of the songwriter. As the music industry has developed, music publishers have been able to spot new opportunities much more quickly than record labels and have looked for ways to do business with media industries (Gammons, 2011).

The publishing industry will continue to grow in favour of songwriters, as technology and the way consumers buy and listen to music constantly changes. A huge development in the publishing industry includes the Music Modernization Act (MMA) which was introduced in the US on October 11th, 2018. This makes it easier for copyright owners to get paid easily when their music is streamed online (Deahl, 2018). The MMA has a goal to establish a new collecting society called the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) that would provide a blanket license for streaming services to companies, covering mechanical rights in songs not covered by a digital company’s direct deal with music publishers (St. Claire, 2018). The PRS mentioned how the act will have a global impact, affecting the way in which rights are valued and licensed for songwriters, composers, publishers including PRS for Music members whose works are used in the US (PRS, 2018).

Frances Moore, the Chief Executive of the IFPI expressed her concern about the value gap. The value gap is the mismatch between the value created by some digital platforms from their use of music and what they pay those creating and investing in it (2018). The value gap has occurred due to services such as YouTube, which have developed sophisticated on- demand music platforms, using this as a shield to avoid licensing music on fair terms like other digital services, claiming that they are not legally responsible for the music they distribute on their site. In the Global Music Report 2017, artists, performers and songwriters including Sir Paul McCartney, Robin Schulz and Coldplay, signed a letter asking the European Commission to address the value gap and take urgent action in June 2016. This led to the European Commission proposing a draft legislation clarifying that services that engage with the content uploaded by users are liable for that content and need to be licensed, and if services provide access to large amounts of this content, the upload of said content would be prevented. These proposals would be an important first step to addressing the value gap in Europe (GMR, 2017). The value gap makes it increasingly difficult for upcoming artists to prosper in today’s industry, but as the industry develops and new legislations come into place, the value gap should decrease, and artists will be able to earn the right amount of money for their work.

The live music industry has developed drastically over the last few years. From the introduction to the Live Music Act to apps such as melodyVR, which introduces live music in a reimagined way. As ticket prices have risen by 27% since the late 1990’s, the live music sector has started to look for other ways to make audience’s experience worthwhile (Graham, 2018).

The UK’s music attractions including festivals, concert venues and musical heritage sites generated an estimated £4bn of direct and indirect spend in 2016. This includes music tourists who travelled to the UK for a music event. The number of music tourists has risen by 76% since 2013, and an estimated 47,445 full time UK jobs in 2016 supported music tourism. The £4bn revenue generated consists of tickets, transport, accommodation and related costs. The total audience for live music in the UK was 30.9m with 27m attending concerts and 3.9m attending music festivals (UK Music, 2018).

The Live Music Act (2012) was a huge change for the live sector of the music industry. The objective of the Live Music Act 2012 was to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens relating to live music and reduce costs that deters small venues from staging live music, thereby increasing interest and participation in live music through additional performance- without harming licensing objectives (gov.uk, 2014). This act meant that an event license was no longer required for live music, as long as the event was taking place on a premise licensed to sell alcohol between the hours of 8am and 11pm and the audience was no more than 500 people (Last Minute Musicians, 2019). These changes have since then made it easier for thousands of music venues around the UK to put on live music whilst abiding to other criteria such as obtaining a PRS and PPL license. These licenses will allow the artists to generate royalties and allows the venue to play recorded music on their premises.

One crucial change for live music is the introduction to the Music Venue Trust who aim to secure the long- term future of iconic Grassroots Music Venues (GMV). These are venues which have played a crucial role in the development of music over the last 40 years, nurturing local talent and providing a platform for artists to build their careers and develop their music and performance skills (MVT, 2014). The benefits of having GMV are that they “provide a central beacon of music activity that inspires towns/ boroughs/ cities to be musical, and the absence of once causes a dearth of music activity” (MVT, 2015). Helping to keep the live music scene alive allows for the growth in new talent and access to emerging artists.

Live music in general has transformed significantly over the years, as technology has been able to alter the live experience for us as viewers. MelodyVR uses modern headset technology to allow you to preview your favourite artists shows from any row, anywhere in the world from the comfort of your own home. In an interview with NME magazine, founder Anthony Matchett explained how “this technology has the power to make people feel as if they’re actually present at a live gig, that they may never be able to physically get to”. Matchett argues “it’s never meant to replace the live experience but pretty music all the artists we work with are selling out their shows in five minutes”. The purpose of VR is to make sure fans can feel closer to the artist, and experience something that they cannot physically experience in real life. As exciting as this is for the development of virtual and augmented reality, the possibility of it destroying real live music is also a huge worry for some artists and fans. AR and VR may be catastrophic for many people’s jobs, however Chloe Ward, UK director of Independent Venue Week believes that VR cannot compete with the experience and atmosphere of a live gig. (Jones, 2018).

The appearance of Tupac as a hologram at Coachella in 2012 sparked up debates about the effect on the audience during live shows. Holograms have allowed the industry to bring back any artist that has ever lived to entertain us once more. For example, Michael Jackson’s hologram performance for the 2014 Billboard Music Awards took half a year to compose as the choreography and detail was in-depth (Behrens, 2014). This technology is widely celebrated, but again troubling as it could take away the authenticity of a live performance. Also, the legal hurdles can be daunting as when a performer dies, the name, image and likeness rights held while they were alive may or may not still apply and getting these rights is essential in making these performances work (Bukszpan, 2017). Recently, an Amy Winehouse hologram tour was announced, with her father saying in a statement that “it means everything that her legacy will continue” (2018). Holograms are essential in the growth of the live sector, as it adds uniqueness to our experience at live shows.

Overall, recording, publishing and live music have all brought new developments to the UK and global music industry. As these sectors continue to grow and develop, the music industry needs to try its hardest to keep up as the age of the internet, rapid technology developments and the rise of large-scale tours and festivals are some of the major factors that have brought about these changes. With the rise in ticket prices and second party websites re-selling tickets for almost triple the price, virtual reality and augmented reality will be a great way for people to experience live music as if they were there. New technologies have allowed new artists to experiment creatively leading to new genre’s and sub- genres, bigger fanbases and more publicity. Artists will continue to use the internet as a tool of promotion and creative collaboration and with new legislations in place, the value gap will slowly decrease allowing songwriters and authors to get paid fairly for their hard work.