viernes, 23 de abril de 2010
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.
jueves, 22 de abril de 2010
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.
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.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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.
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