Recorded Music Industry

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson

History

The Acoustic Era

• Struggle for standardization• Mass duplication• Playback only• 1906=reification • 1918, patents run out

o Indie competition

• Music sells hardware• Passive music cons.

The Electrical Era

• Hardware sales=music sales• Increased consolidation• Non-vertically integrated• Power shift, “Empires of Sound”• Tape/LP/45. Standardization• Indies and big box stores• Technology/production power

to distribution power

The Tape Era

• Hardware sales secondary to music sales • Tapes as consumer empowerment• Piracy= Music circulated outside of market• "Records sold like toothpaste..."• Big 6 control 80%, lose touch of audience

The Tangible Digital Era

• Philips/Sony, CD• Curb piracy, $$$ format• Back to the disc format• STANDARDIZATION• GE/Sony/Thorn, 1900s!• CD cuts costs, price =

Some Numbers

• Worldwide $17B market for recorded music• Big 4= 80% of US sales, 70% globally• 2009: Album sales fell to 373.9 million from

450.5 million in 2007• 2009: while digital album sales rose 16% to

a record 76.4 million units in 2009• Digital music grows $363M, iTune 25% US• Less current music, more catalog music

Industry• Music groups, record label groups, labels

• Musicians

• Recording Artists

• Song Writers

• Distributors

• Retail

• Publishers Rights Organizations

• Trade Association

• Consumers

The Majors

• 80% of U.S. market at production level, 95% at distribution level.

• 2008 U.S market valued at $8.3B ($14.3B/$37B in 2000)• 70% of global market.

30.2% 9.2%

20.55% 28.58.7%

3.3%$200M

2.6%$35M

$25M

2.7%

The Independents

RIAA Board• Mitch Bainwol (RIAA)• Victoria Bassetti (EMI Recorded Music) • Colin Finkelstein (EMI Recorded Music)• Bill Hearn (EMI Christian Music Group)• Deirdre McDonald (SonyBMG)• Joe Galante (SonyBMG)• Kevin Kelleher (SonyBMG)• Rob Stringer (SonyBMG)• Julie Swidler (SonyBMG Music)• Luke Wood (Interscope Records) • Jeff Harleston (Universal Music Group)• Zach Horowitz (Universal Music Group)• Mel Lewinter (Universal Motown Republic Group)• Craig Kallman (The Atlantic Group)• Tom Whalley (Warner Bros Records)• Michael Fleisher (Warner Music Group)• Kevin Liles (Warner Music Group)• Bob Cavallo (Buena Vista Music)• Glen Barros (Concord Music Group) • Mike Curb (Curb Records)• Michael Koch (E1/Koch Entertainment)• Tom Silverman (Tommy Boy Entertainment)• Steve Bartels (Island Records)• Alan Meltzer (Wind Up Records)

RIAA Cont’d

• Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality.

• Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world.

• RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.