Here is the PowerPoint outline for Chapter 13.  Remember to complete the application outline at the end.

International Ownership of Record Companies

•      WEA (AOL Time Warner) is U.S.

•      Columbia Records (Sony) is Japanese

•      RCA (Bertelsman) is German

•      EMI is British

•      Universal Music (Vivendi/Universal) is French

•      Despite international ownership, these record companies are intent on finding local talent

Nature of Business

•      Majors control 85% of the market in
the U.S.

•      Young people buy more records than middle aged people

•      Albums are sold at a profit, sale of singles do not earn profits

•      CDs account for 90% of the market
while cassettes dropped during
the 1990s

Labels

•      A label is a division of a record company that releases a certain type of music and has a certain personality

–   A&R (artist and repertoire) person recruits acts for the label

–   AFM (American Federation of Musicians)

–   AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) are unions that represent the artists

–   ASCAP and BMI are royalty collection agencies

Producing a Record

•      Producer’s responsibilities

–  Copyright clearances

–  Hiring session musicians

–  Bringing the recording session in
on budget

–  Delivering the final master tape to the record company

Distributing a Record

•      Wholesalers work much the same way that they do in the book business

•      Therefore promotion of the record is very important

•      Radio is still very important to promotion

•      Companies must get the buyer to hear part of the music in order to motivate
a sale

Other Routes

•      Music for movies cross promote the movie

•      The web can be a space where fans in chat rooms create a buzz on a new record

•      Black Entertainment Television puts the spotlight on African American musicians

•      Concert tours are expensive but effective promotion devices

Exhibition

•      Traditional music stores

•      General retail stores

•      Music clubs

•      Mail order

Digital Challenge

•      Napster allowed internet users to swap music through MP3 software

–  Majors and musicians claim that this is illegal copying of copyrighted material

–  Napster tries to argue that it is fair use and does not hurt record sales

–  Others state that it is a consumer rebellion against the high price of CDs

•      Courts have ruled against Napster

Complaints About Record Content

•      Many have complained about offensive language in the music

•      Gangsta rap gets the most complaints

•      Record companies have responded with voluntary ratings

•      Retailers have still banned
certain records

•      There has been no successful official censorship of records recently

APPLICATION EXERCISE:  Ch. 13--Interview