ISSUE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY:

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTIST AND RECORD LABELS, AND GETTING A FAIR DEAL

There was an article by Hellienne Lindvall on ‘The

Guardian’ newspaper about how supporting copyright is not the same as opposing

freedom of speech. She was invited as a representative of

ACTA

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/apr/19/copyright-freedom-speech

The internet/technology has made the relationship between record labels and artists

almost unnecessary. Its easier to be an independent artist

eg. Ed Sheeran, Ludacris

LUDACRIS

‘Incognegro’ is the independently released debut album by American rapper Ludacris. Most of the tracks were then reused in his major label debut ‘Back for the first time’

ED SHEERAN

• He released his 8th independent extended play ‘No.5 collaborations project’; with it, Sheeran gained mainstream attention. Three months later, he was signed to Asylum/Atlantic records.

• Throughout 2010, Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through YouTube and his fan base grew, with him also getting credit from ‘The Independent’ newspaper

MEGAVIDEO• Megavideo got shut down due to issues of piracy,

however they are not opening a new company which allows artist to upload their music and allows audiences to download it. This gives artists 90% profit and mega video 10%, this initially cuts out the need of the record label

As technology is improving it is making it easier for these artists to upload their music on websites such as YouTube, Megavideo etc. this allows artists to expand independently, making their relationship between artists and record labels unnecessary

How Issue Affects…

Music production

• Artists signed to a record label have access to expensive music producing materials.

• Expert vocal training means the artist has a more professional studio sound.

production

• Record labels highly influence the music produced by artists in order to satisfy certain audiences.

• This can be seen as an issue because the artist may not be catering for the audience that they desire or produce the music that they like.

For example

• The artist Pink has not always produced pop/rock songs, when starting out as an artist her label saw a niche in the market for a white female R&B artist.

“My record label wanted me to record my album a certain way and I wanted to go another way”

Both completely different Artist in terms of target audience, music genre etc. However the relationship between Pink and her

record label made it look as if she was an R&B artist (image, music) like Kelly Rowland when in fact she was the complete

opposite.

Marketing

Marketing for the artist becomes much easier,• This includes developing and executing ad and

marketing campaigns as well as promoting and plugging the acts to media.

Marketing …

• Record labels can enable for artists music to be used in movies and adverts, and license rights to global parties in different markets.

Distribution• Record labels are beneficial in terms of

distribution of music.• They have the power to easily distribute

your music on the TV, Movies, popular music stores (HMV)

• Whereas an independent artist mostly only has access to the internet.

Cross media synergy

• If an artists music exists as part of a cross media synergy it means that it is exposed to more people, in many different formats.

• An independent artist may not have access to the means to do this. However record labels are able to do this very easily.

For example:Beyoncé's song ‘Check on it’ and movie ‘pink panther’ can be seen as part of a cross media synergy. Those who watch the movie are exposed to the song and vice versa. This shows music and film converging.

Exchange

• The artist receives the necessary funds to produce, market and distribute their material and also recognition across the professional industry market, which leads to featuring with popular artists.

Exchange

The record label gains two things:1. Become well known in the industry for

producing credible artists.2. They invest in the artist and in return make a

lot of money from the artists.