Music Piracy

How do institutions sell their products to audiences in contemporary media?
List three methods.
-music videos
-tours
-posters

To understand the effects of music piracy for institutions and audiences

music industry revenue streams
-radio advertising revenue
-live music sector
-music retail sector (amazon, hmv, itunes)
-licensing of music to third parties (spotify)

To understand the effect of music piracy on institutions and audiences

95% of music downloads are unauthorised
71% of users increasing their illicit downloads cite high prices as the reason
84% of illicit downloads think artists deserve to be paid
Solution: lower song price and raise artist compensation transparency

What is the effect of piracy?

-the music industry is still losing out to internet pirates on a huge scale, with an estimated 95% of music available online being downloaded illegally
-the industry is 'transforming' its business models, turning to marketing ideas such as Radiohead's 'pay what you like' album in Rainbows and Coldplay's move to give away tracks to promote their album.
-in the UK market alone, the record industry lost £180m last year and will lose more than £1bn by the end of 2013.

"It's a trend... about a new democracy of ideas and information, about changing notions of authority, about the releasing of individual creativity"
Alan Rusbridger, Editor-in-cheif of The Guardian

Article:
Independent Swin Upstream
As streaming services increase their share of the overall market, their royalty payments have come under scrutiny from artists and record labels.
Spotify said it paid out about $500 million in royalties in 2013, according to numbers it released in December. The company likes to focus on that big number instead of ow it breaks down: .6 to .84 cents every time a song is played. It doesn't pay a set amount per stream, but uses a more complicated formula based on what percentage of spotify's total monthly streams an artist represents.
the comany cites an example of a 'global hit album' earning $245,000 in a month, but that's for a top seller. A mid-level artist could do tens of thousands of streams in a month and maybe see a few hundred bucks for it. Mulligan's report notes that some independent artists do crack that 1% but it's not easy.
No danger for major labels
The numbers tell different stories here: the rise of streaming and increase in total artist sound like music to musicians' ears. but they're not in the 1% tey may be singing the blues the next time they open their royalty checks.
on the other hand, the major labels, universal music group, sony and warner music group, don't appear to be in danger of losing their market share as downloads decrease and more users to streaming.

Writing Task

How do institutions sell their products to audiences in contemporary media?
include:
-traditional sales
-digital
-combatting piracy
-streaming
-paragraph on domino

Example:
In contemporary media practise institutions such as SONY are forced to think of new ways to sell their products in order to avoid online piracy. In December 2011 SONY, via their offprint label columbia, released Beyonce's self-titled album online with no previous marketing. This meant that material was not leaked online and exposed to illegal downloads. It also meant that material media interest was generated due to the unusual release pattern which in turn generated extra sales. However, reports have shown that Beyonce's album was still illegally downloaded 240,000 times costing SONY £2.5million. This would suggest that even the largest conglomerates are unable to avoid piracy despite adapting the methods in which they sell their products.
Explanation/ analysis/ argument (20 marks)
Use of examples (20 marks)
Use of terminology (10 marks)