Week Seven 2/23-2/27

"Why the Pop Music Industry Is Built To Discourage Good Music"

     According to this article, there is not an economic deficit in the music industry as many have believed, but rather an issue in terms of justness and fairness. It seems like the famous are only getting more famous as we see how the 10 best-selling songs command 82% more of the market than they did a decade ago. As of this last decade with all the new technologies such as Spotify, Youtube, Shazam and Wikipedia which we are all oh-so-grateful for, in addition to being able to see what viewers like and listen to the most, they are also able to find out where they listen to it, how, and on which platform. Furthermore, computer programs can apparently now guess best-sellers. Yep, I said it. The "HitPredictor" which was founded in 2002 correctly guessed 48 out of 50 of 2013's hits. 

"There isn't a crisis of money in the industry — there's a crisis of equity."

"With numbers indicating what audiences want next based on what they already like, the business opportunities are near-boundless and risk-free. And the music is boring as a result."

     So basically what I gathered from this article was that the pop music industry is focusing on finding "new talent" that sounds like the already-existing. In other words, they are not looking for that "different yet good" kind of music that most of us listeners seem to believe they are searching for, they are literally looking for artists that sound like another already-successful one. For example, I think it is safe to say that the fairly new boy band 5 Seconds Of Summer (5SOS) sounds a lot like this other relatively known boy band that goes by the name of One Direction.... Haha. Now, with the many resources such as the "HitPredictor", the "big three" labels- Warner, Universal, and Sony, are basically able to take out all of the originality out of music as they choose to continuously "discover" the same kind of musicians/artists and with the contribution of radio stations as they play the same songs over and over. 

Source:
Why the Pop Music Industry Is Built To Discourage Good Music

Citation: 

Pollock, Matt. "Why the Pop Music Industry Is Built to Discourage Good Music." Mic. N.p., 24 Nov. 2014. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Week Seven 2/16-2/20

"The Music Industry Is Dying? Great"

     This article explains in detail how the demise of the music industry surprisingly works well for some musicians as a moment of liberating grace. Apparently it is still possible to make a decent living in this industry even with the unpredictability of the economy. It seems like music commentators have been making serious efforts to understand why the music business has been upended and what is going to come next. According to this article, music is one of the last culturally dominant "rich people's" games where those on top frequently "lose it all".

"That’s so twentieth century. When we were one cohesive society. Now it’s every man for himself. And either you pop your head through or you're irrelevant. Even worse, you can be famous and irrelevant."

"All that counts is the mainstream. If you're not attempting to be known by everybody, if your goal is the niche, it’s almost like you don’t even exist"

     Sure, this article may not be the most interesting and entertaining, but it has good information on the economic standpoint of the music industry. Apparently, there has been a disruption at the system level in the business. Supposedly, music is now foundering as a wealth enterprise or in other words, falling through. Musicians just aren't getting their numbers up to where they would like them to be or where they once had them. It is clear that even though these celebrities have tried coming up with all sorts of over the top stunts, it is just not enough and they are not where the industry wants them to be at. In the music industry, the "financial churn that helps democracy thrive" is still alive, but is among the current and former stars. I completely agree with the article when it says how it is so easy in this industry to lose support from institutions, audiences, and even fans. I say this because as a heavy music consumer, I have stopped supporting musicians I once was crazy for. And the crazy part is that, as easy as it is to lose support in this industry, it is just as hard to build an empire. And streaming sites such as Spotify and Youtube are not helping at all, in fact they are contributing to the big pile of problems faced by musicians. But hey... that's just the music industry for ya.

Source:
The Music Industry Is Dying? Great

Citation:

Poulos, James. The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.

Week Six 2/9-2/13

"Music Industry Exec Sees Vinyl Rise As More 'Fad" Than 'Explosion'"

     According to Rolling Stone, in the last year there was a 52 percent rise in record store vinyl sales. But it seems like the music industry itself is not as content as record store owners with this explosive comeback of vinyl records. This is because managers and record labels see the vinyl obsession as a fad, or in other words, just a "cool" phase that will blow over soon enough. Because managers and record labels have this outlook on vinyl sales, they are not making much of an effort to prop up the 15 or so record plants that are left in the nation. But then, as a result of that, pressing plants have not been able to keep up with the demand, and retailers have been awkwardly running out of vinyls a little too often. Furthermore, many big names in the industry such as Tom Corson, president of Sony-owned RCA Records, believes that although vinyls are great and something he considers an emotional investment in the music, they are only a small percentage of the business and will not make or break their year. 

"This sentiment of "we love vinyl but . . . " is common among top record executives."

"From a label perspective, it's expensive. You've got to ship it. There are environmental concerns,"


     I don't know if you've all heard, but did you know that this is the "hipster" era? Well in case you didn't know, now you know. It seems like the new, "cool", thing in this generation is to be infatuated with styles, trends, and objects that our parents would have used back in the day. Of course, there actually are young people who do like these "throwbacks", but I think it's safe to say that many are kind of just going with the flow and liking what's momentarily cool. That being said, I completely understand and agree with why managers and record labels are choosing to not go overboard with the vinyls because it is not a secure investment, since it is most likely temporarily. 

Source:

Music Industry Execs Sees Vinyl Rise as More 'Fad' Than 'Explosion'

Citation:

Knopper, Steve. "Music Industry Exec Sees Vinyl Rise As More 'Fad" Than 'Explosion'" N.p., 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Week Five 2/2-2/6

"Under the Influence of... Music?"

     Music is a big part of teenagers' lives nowadays. They listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of it per day, which is nearly 18 hours of listening to music in a week! But also these days, one in three popular songs contains explicit references to drug or alcohol use. The average teenager is exposed to around 84 references of explicit content each day, 591 in one week, or 30,732 per year. According to studies. they have long shown that the media does affect childhood behaviors. When children are exposed to smoking in movies, they are more likely to try it. The same goes for alcohol which has been discovered that its use in movies and promotions is also linked to alcohol use. 

"The study authors noted that music represents a pervasive source of exposure to positive images of substance use."

"Unlike visual media, music is a powerful social force that also taps into an individual’s personal identity, memories and mood."

“Music is well-known to connect deeply with adolescents and to influence identity development, perhaps more than any other entertainment medium,” said the study authors.

     Most teenagers these days have smart phones with easy access to music streaming applications, and if not, Ipods or mp3 players. So it's safe to say that adolescents in this generation are exposed to a lot of explicit content such as substance use, criminal activities, etc. But, I think we have always been aware of this. What's changed is that now technology is so accessible to people of all ages, so kids of any age can basically get their hands on explicit songs that mom and dad may have forbid. And although it's not necessarily always true, it has been proven that these explicit sayings in music or content on television does influence the behavior of adolescents. And that's what scares most parents.  The exposure nowadays is just crazy and out of control.

Source:
Under the Influence of... Music?

Citation:

Parker-Pope, Tara. "Under the Influence Of...Music?" Well Under the Influence OfMusic Comments. The New York Times, 05 Feb. 2008. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.