Evaluation Question 3B

How would our products be distributed as real media products? 

In Film, there are the 'Big Six' (arguably big seven) which are the companies that dominate the industry. However, in the music industry, there are the 'Big Three'

This pie chart shows the World music market sales shares, according to IFPI (2005) This chart and information was sourced from Wikipedia. 

The Big Three are:  

• Universal Music Group
• 

• Sony BMG Music Entertainment
  

• Warner Music group

There are also:

• Independent Record Labels
• EMI (Until 2012)

So to clarify Market sales shares: 

-Universal: 25.5%

-Sony BMG: 21.5%

-Warner Music Group: 11.3%

-Independent: 28.4%

-EMI: 14.1%

Decrease in physical music, Increase in online music

In recent years, the demand for physical music/CDs has decreased, as music is becoming more and more easy to access online. Websites such as YouTube and Soundcloud and apps

like Spotify have enabled fans to listen to music and watch music videos for free. Since 2000, sales of recorded music have dropped off substantially while live music has increased in important. In 2011, the largest recorded music retailer in the world was Apple's online iTunes store. 

Competition in the music industry

When an industry goes from many to few competitors, it is called either Consolidation or Concentration of Ownership. An issue with concentration of ownership is that if there is no other competition, prices will rise. Evidence of this can be seen today with the CD industry. As there is less demand for CDs (due to the availability of music online) there is not a lot of competition, and therefore the price of CDs has risen a significant amount recently. 

Advertising

The American Cable company and satellite television network HBO (Home Box Office) has no advertising whatsoever. Because of this, they are allowed to broadcast far more explicit shows than other similar companies. This is because advertisers have a lot of control. They do not like their brand to be associated with shows that are explicit or negative, especially if they are considered a 'family friendly' brand. 

An example of this is Madonna. Madonna had a deal with Pepsi and was working with them. However, after she released the video for her song 'Like a Prayer', which was very explicit and controversial, they pulled out of the deal as they did not want their brand to be affected by the controversy surrounding her. 

Chomsky's 5 filter Theory:

This theory, which explains how propaganda and systematic biases function in mass media. The second filter in this theory is Advertising. Here is a useful explanation of the advertising filter, however this is using the example of newspapers.

Record labels 'dropping' acts

EMI signed the Sex Pistols, suddenly the band came under fire from politicians and the media. EMI dumped them immediately. Their song 'EMI' was written about this. 

Bring Me The Horizon

Bring me The Horizon's albums Sempiternal, and That's the Spirit are distributed by RCA which is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment.If our video was a real media product, it would be distributed by RCA too. I think this because these are considered their most successful albums and we would hopefully like to continue this success with this album. 

KO: INDUSTRY: Merchandise

In this post I will talk about different merchandise for different bands.

Bands sell merchandise to create some extra income. Now a days bands dont earn as much from concert tickets or CD sales as people can easily stream or pirate music. So to earn more most bands sell merchandise. Most bands sell the normal merch such as T-SHirts, Hoodies, caps, and other clothes. I will be listing some more unusual merch.

AC/DC sells dog tags with the AC/DC logo on them. Dog Tags are necklaces that soldiers use in the army but have become very popular as a form of jewelry.

The music producer Deadmau5 has headphones created for cats. There was only made 10 functioning cat headphones and the price was set at $1000. The headphones are a smaller version of the Deadmou5 Sol Republic headphones and where created for Deadmou5s cat.

The band Fall Out Boy also has a bunch of different merch on being wall flags. There are almost like posters such made from fabric and if you look in the corner they have holes in them so you could use it as a flag.

Five Finger Death Punch sells finger-less gloves with their logo on which is of knuckle busters with spikes on them with 5 F D P in each circle.

This is most likely the most bizarre merch of the ones I found. Kiss sells a lot of special merch, one which is a coffin. There are a few Kiss Coffins 2 of which are Deluxe edition. On the description it says it can also be used as a drink chiller while you are still alive. Kiss also sells a Limited Edition Pinball Machine for $12000. But for those who arent willing to buy for such a high price there is also the Pinball Machine -Profor $6500


The band The Rolling Stones also has a lot of merch. It has merch for all ages even baby's this might be because people who who grew up listening to the rolling stones might have baby's now at will then buy a baby rolling stones romper. The rolling stone also have a book which you can buy on their website. They have two Exibitionism books Hard and Soft Cover. They also sell cufflinks with the the logo on them.

The band Twenty One Pilots sells a bunch of merch the most special one being the TOP Ukulele. Its priced at $125 which is more than double what a normal ukulele costs.

SR: INDUSTRY: Merchandise

For our website we also need to come up with ideas for merchandising. Therefore we looked through different bands such as the ones we blogged on for social media and ofcourse also Bring Me The Horizon themselves.

Nowadays, bands sell merchandise to get an extra income. They dont earn as much from concert tickets or CD sales anymore since it is easier for people to stream or pirate music. 

On Bring Me The Horizon's official website, there are quite a lot of merchandise that are available to purchase. These include:

When Bring Me The Horizon performed at the Rock A Field music festival here in Luxembourg, they couldn't include all of their merchandise, because there are loads of bands that are trying to sell their merchandise at a festival. Therefore, they include the most important merchandise that people are guaranteed to buy at a festival such as T-Shirts, Jumpers, Caps and with time, bands have started to sell phones cases on festivals as well, since a lot of people have smartphones nowadays.
The merchandise on their website are not just the typical T-Shirt or Hoodie, but include backpacks, phone cases, watches and many other things, which you can view on their  website.

Fall out Boy, had quite different merchandise from Bring Me The Horizon. Their merchandise included these bobbleheads with the names of the band members on the small platform the bobbleheads are standing on. This can be purchased for 50$. However, the band is being portrayed as quite "Hipster" with the look that they have such as the hat on Patrick's head. They could have included the band members holding guitars or having Joe sit by the drumkit on the platform. On the website you can also buy as well as other T-Shirts, jumpers and wall flags.

Rise Against merchandise is more focused on different types of T-Shirts, such as for example this one with the cover from Rise Against newest digipack on there. They were however also the first of the three bands where I saw the CD in the store. The two other bands had quite a lot of merchandise, but their CD's weren't included. Whereas Rise Against included both CD but also Vinyl of their newest album The Black Market.

Vodcast 2: Industry

My second vodcast is about the music video industry.