R.I.P Malcolm McLaren

In the name of all the creative and cultural industries, specially the music industry in the UK, rest in peace Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of the Sex Pistols.

Talking about conglomerates...

As in any other Creative and Cultural or any other industries, there exist la creme de la creme of business that have proved that they can do it better, I'm talking about conglomerates, those large and/or remarcable companies that own most of UK's music industry nowadays.

There exist more than 1000 record labels in the UK, but the most important ones are the following:

WAIT!

Aren't we in a new era of new technologies? new media? Wouldn't be more accurate to talk instead of the major music distribuitors in the UK? Aren't these who really control UK's music industry?


"We can now experience and buy music online via iTunes, Amazon, 7digital, Bleep, Play, HMV, Tesco, Spotify, We7, MySpace Music, Sky Songs, Napster, eMusic and a host of others. Social networks revolve around music. You can even enjoy music bundled into the price of a mobile handset." says Feargal Sharkey, CEO of UK Music.

So, shall we talk about these new form of buying music?

Itunes: iTunes accounts for 70% of worldwide online digital music sales, making the service the largest legal music retailer. iTunes Music Store is the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs. Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained an over 70 percent market share of legal music downloads.

7digital: 7digital is a privately-held digital media delivery company based in the United Kingdom, offering downloadable music, video and movies to customers primarily within major European markets. They also provide branded digital solutions for their clients, including traditional media companies such as ITV and Channel Five, brands such as Pringles and Miller, Spotify, and social networking sites Last.FM & Bebo. The company is also notable for its involvement with War Child, for whom they provide the technology behind Warchild Music.

Bleep.com: Bleep is an online digital music retailer offering single track or whole album DRM-free mp3 and FLAC downloads. It is a subsidiary of Warp Records.
In November 2008, Bleep merged with Warpmart, which had been Warp's store for physical releases.

Play.com: Play Ltd., trading as Play.com is a Jersey-based online retailer of DVDs, CDs, books, gadgets, video games, DRM-free mp3 downloads, and other electronic products, as well as clothes and accessories. Founded in 1998, Play.com was one of the first online retailers targeting the UK. It is the second biggest online retailer in the UK market, according to traffic monitor Hitwise, and it is in the top 50 globally. Play.com was ranked second on the November 2006 UK "Hot Shops List" compiled by IMRG and Hitwise. Play.com has 7,000,000 registered customers, a catalogue of over 8,000,000 products, and it employs some 500 staff.
On 15 January 2009, a survey published by Verdict Research found Play.com was the UK's second favourite music and video retailer, behind first place Amazon.co.uk and ahead of entertainment retailer Zavvi who came in third. On 24 February 2009, it was reported that Play.com had topped the National Consumer Satisfaction Index, ahead of Amazon.co.uk and iTunes.
Play.com launched their own-branded credit card during May 2009 offering PlayPoints.

HMV: HMV Group (LSE: HMV) is an international entertainment retail chain and is the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom and Canada. The company also operates stores in Ireland, Hong Kong and Singapore. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Acquisitions by the HMV Group include Waterstone's in 1998 from W H Smith, the music retailer Fopp in August 2007, and selected Zavvi retail outlets in February 2009.
Simon Fox has been Chief Executive Officer since 28 September 2006. For this role he is paid an annual salary of £493,000.
HMV stands for His Master's Voice, a painting by Francis Barraud, A.R.A. of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone. In the original painting, the dog was listening to a cylinder phonograph.

We7: we7 is a free, advertising supported, streaming media music service, with over 4 million tracks available for streaming in the UK, with content from all four major record labels, and most independent labels and distributors. Most tracks and albums are also available to purchase from the in-site store. Outside the UK, it has limited content.
Songs streamed on we7 have a short audio advert, or blipvert, that plays before each song. This is usually combined with a change in the advert on the page, with the intent of the audio advert drawing attention to the clickable advert.
The site claims it had 3 million tracks available for streaming at launch, and currently claims over 2.5 M users and 4 million tracks.

Emusic: eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City and owned by Dimensional Associates, LLC. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers.
eMusic was one of the first sites to sell music in the MP3 format, beginning in 1998. It differs from other well-known music download services (such as iTunes and AmazonMP3) in that it is a download-to-own subscription service.
While lauded by the general public, its early support of the MP3 format, lack of digital rights management (DRM) encoding and low price model made the service unappealing to the Big Four record labels until recently. Prior to July 2009, eMusic sold only music from independent labels in all genres, including indie rock, pop, jazz, electronica, new age, underground rap, traditional music, classical music, heavy metal, hardcore punk, and experimental music.
eMusic was the first digital retailer to sell DRM-free downloadable audiobooks in the MP3 format beginning in 2007. Audible.com, its largest competitor, offers audiobooks with digital rights management in the .aa format.

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In sum, to talk about conglomerates first we need to define which sector of the industry is the one that controls it or produces more profit. In the case of the music industry in the UK and worldwide (thanks to new media), the sector that controls most of the profit is retailing.

John Peel OBE: + 50 years of service to UK's music industry

Music in the UK has changed over the last century, for each genre there has always been an icon; someone that made a change in the industry in one way or another. These people can be artists, producers or artists becoming producers and even promoters of their own music. These people have stepped beyond everyone else and have developed a new way of seeing the music industry over the years.
If I can think of someone that has touches all the grounds and put his finger in all of the pies, that would be for excellence: John Peel.
Naturally I go and google Mr. Peel, first is a really complete Wikipedia article where it explains everything about him, from his beginnings until his death.
“John Robert Parker Ravenscroft OBE, (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967, until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and his honest and warm broadcasting style. He was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock, reggae and punk records on British radio, and he is widely acknowledged for promoting artists working in various genres including alternative rock, indie rock, pop, hardcore punk, death metal, British hip hop and dance music.” (Wikipedia)

Quite a broad person is it not?

****** this article is under construction******

New technology and change in UK’s music industry development

It is a fact that new technology has affected many Cultural and Creative Industries; in the case of music the repercussions have been really bad mostly in the copyright field regulations.

The UK music industry used to work in a very different way before the digital era came; all the regulations from production, content, copyright and access had a whole singular approach.

Now all these regulations are changing due the overwhelming bad usage of new technology; before, people used to go to the disco store and buy records, now you can download the same records, sometimes with the same quality, for free.

This is a fact and it has affected a great majority of Featured Artists which are the responsible for most of the income in the music industry and has caused an incredible amount of waste of money, as artists have to pay (in the majority of cases) for the studio and all the production process to finally have their album released and then for people to download it for free.

In the UK there exist some regulatory bodies that are trying their best to solve this big issue that piracy is, but at the end of the day people from every part of the world were, are and will be downloading files and files of music illegally, it’s a reality and we have to learn how to take advantage of it or either develop a really strong regulation that would stop piracy for once. As I posted couple of entries ago, in the UK, 7 of 10 people in the UK downloading music ilegally would start paying for the service if their ISP (Internet Service Provider) told their so. That is quite a number! But is this the solution? It wouldn’t either way affect the artists’ income because many people are so used to download for free that they wouldn’t be bothered to pay?

In a recent article written by Mark Mulligan for www.paidcontent.org, he explains that there can be 3 possible approaches to illegal downloading music in the UK:

- Adapting digital music to New Media in the form of advertising. For each track there will be a certain amount of ads before, or during the downloading process. The average revenue per unit (ARPU) wouldn’t be too much but it would cover the largest segment of the industry.

- Premium membership. People will have a limited access to music for free, like samples and if they want full access and HQ (High Quality) they will have to pay. This would cover the smallest sector of the industry but the higher ARPU.

- Subsidized by the ISP (Internet Service Provider). This would make the perfect balance of ARPU and industry segment coverage.

I think in the digital era we are all living in, it will be impossible or at least it will take loads of time and money to make people stop downloading music for free.
However, with these 3 approaches working together, we can make the most of illegal downloading music in the UK and bring back all the lost income and copyright to Featured Artists and renew the way producers and regulation bodies look at the music industry or any other CCI.

Interesting links on this issue:

http://newsblog.thecmuwebsite.com/post/CMU-Review-Of-The-Year-2009-The-music-business.aspx

http://www.ukmusic.org/news

http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com/showscreen.php?site_id=161&screentype=folder&screenid=2984

http://www.timacheson.com/Blog/2009/sep/landmark_deal_between_youtube_and_prs

http://www.pro-music.org/Content/questions/FreeMusicMyths.php

Mappin' up the Music Industry in the UK

Here is a general view of how the Music Industry is distributed in the UK, its mayor players and everyone involved in the business.

As we can see, it is a very complex structure that involve many companies and individuals. What is important to notice is that almost everything is connected.

However there are some bits of the structure that the music industry in the UK wouldn't exist, some core industries that control the Music Industry in the UK, this are the followings:

1) Recording

The function of a record company (or record label) is to find and sign artists / acts and appropriate material (songs), record them professionally, promote the records (product) and associated artist(s) via the media (TV / radio / press / online / clubs) and release in bulk through to retail outlets and digital services for consumers to purchase.


2) Songwriting and Publishers

Music publishers are concerned with the development, promotion and protection of the interests and rights of songwriters and composers. The function of a music publishing company is to find, invest in, develop and support songwriters and composers, manage the rights in the music, enable the music to reach its many audiences and ensure that writers and composers are properly remunerated. This is done in a variety of ways including encouraging record companies to record and release material and licensing works for synchronisation (i.e. agreeing the use of msuic in a film or advert) and print (sheet music). Music publishing jobs tend to fall into a number of broad categories, the majority of which require musical knowledge/experience.

3) Live Music

Being music a form of performing art, is mandatory that the musician shows their work to the public through live music. This can be shown in venues or festivals or just particular performances in a cafe. The important bit is that the music has to be shown live somehow in order to attract and prove validity to the audience.


4) Artist Management

This is the medium on which many artist count to get known by the public. An artist manager will arrange meetings the producers, venues and publishers that best suit the artist.

In this video, Simon Banks talks about how is it like to be an artist manager.

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Now, here is a list of some of the most important companies that appear in the maps before:

• PPL: "Licenses sound recordings and music videos for use in broadcast, public performance and new media."

• PRS: "PRS for Music is one of the world’s most efficient combined rights collecting operations. Offering its members more money, more often, at less cost and its customers the most efficient means by which they can use music." [more info!]

• MPA: "The Music Publishers Association (MPA) is a non-profit organisation representing music publishers in the UK. It exists to safeguard their interests, and those of the writers signed to them."

• UK Music: "UK Music is an umbrella organisation representing the collective interests of the UK’s commercial music industry, from artists, musicians, songwriters and composers, to major and independent record labels, managers, music publishers, studio producers and collecting societies."

• APRS: "The APRS is a leading force within the British Music Industry, maintaining contact with numerous UK and International associations, as well as with other bodies concerned with standards, training, technical and legal issues."

• BASCA: "We endeavour to offer the highest level of support to our members through our wide range of membership services and our personal support to them as individuals."

• AIM: "The Association of Independent Music is a non-profit-making trade organisation for independent record companies and distributors in the UK. We have over 800 label members."

• Equity: "Equity is the UK Trade Union representing professional performers and other creative workers from across the spectrum of the entertainment, creative and cultural industries."

• FAC: "The Featured Artists Coalition campaigns for the protection of performers' and musicians' rights. We want all artists to have more control of their music and a much fairer share of the profits it generates in the digital age."

• MMF: "Since its inception in 1992, the MMF has worked hard to educate, inform and represent UK managers (and their artists) as well as offering a network through which managers can share experiences, opportunities and information."

• MPG: "The MPG represents and promotes the interests of all those involved in the production of recorded music, including producers, engineers, mixers, re-mixers, programmers and mastering engineers."

• MU: "The Musicians’ Union is an organisation respected around the world which represents over thirty two thousand musicians working in all sectors of the music business. "

IMPORTANT: All the maps but the first were taken from the BPI

Mobile Music Producer: A Creative Business Idea

As a response to today's demanding world where the faster you are the higher you get, I came up with this idea of developing a mobile device that can produce, distribute and promote music at the same time. A brand new idea for musicians that require to produce as fast as they can.

More specifically, this mobile device is designed for DJ's that use certain digital softwares to produce their music. ProTech is developed with Wi-Fi in order to download any kind of software required to each DJ preference.

After the tune is recorded, it is automatically distributed and advertised to various music websites where people can listen a sample (few minutes of the track) and then buy it.

ProTech can be used by everyone, not only DJs, as all this music that people buy is stored in the hardrive and can be listened to in the device and also sended to a computer or any other music player.

All at the sound of a CLICK

And the only word you can think of is FAST.

Convergence in Creative and Culture Industries: Something to think about

Nowadays we can clearly see how new forms of Media are 'taking over' the old ones and afecting many C.C.Is. This convergence can either benefit or harm these industries, but how? Which traditional media are bound to disappear or transform due to convergence? Why?

It is not possible to bring up an objective conclusion because it all depends on the specific industry we are analyzing. We can talk about magazines vs. online magazines (as the converging version), some people can think that the physical form of a magazine will never disappear due to the ilegitimate historical value on this form of media and these people are the ones that could even save them for collection for future generations, between other reasons, for some people, simply put: they just want to hold the magazine and enjoy reading in at a coffee shop or in a waiting room, this is also very related with tradition and what a physical magazine signifies. Other people can think that online magazines have a more multimedia kind of concept adding videos and podcasts and this brings up many more oportunities and links to other forms of communication.


Now, talking about culture...


London: city of cities, proven to be the most multicultural city in the world , how it will be affected by this convergence? It will increase its creativity and it will become even more multiculural?

Thinking broadly we all could agree that convergence will make London a more creative and multicultural city as you can research about any kind of culture online, but isn't this arguable? Aren't we missing the core point? The main idea of actually going out there and feel, smell, taste, touch the culture?

I reckon, the only way convergence would estimulate London's creativity is on broad industries like advertising, industries that cover the other ones (it is clear that no C.C.I can survive with at least some Advertising). So, if this Advertising industry uses wisely New Media goodness, the results could be amazing!