The Music Industry

The music industry consists of 5 major music companies, such as Sony, Universal, Warner Music Group, BMG, which are conglomerates and EMI (only one British and national music company; only interested in music, not films etc). Together they own 76% of the British Music Market. A small number of companies which own and control the market/services and the industry are called oligopoly - this is what they represent. The star images (Dyer) which they create are synthetic because they are concentrated only on the profit they can make from the artists rather than allow them freedom in their music and creative process. These companies create star images, such as Beyonce, Jay Z (Sony), Lady Gaga, Eminem, Justin Bieber (Universal), which are created specifically in order to sell a certain type of image, commercialised and mass produced.

However, there are also the so called Minor companies - Independents, which own 24% of the music industry overall. Examples are Domino Records (Artic Monkeys, Lilly Alen), Ghostbox, Essential Direct. These artists have more creative control over their work. They create a more organic and authentic image for their artists (Negus).






Nevetheless, Keith Negus developed the theory of web of inter-dependency. He says that Major and Minor companies go hand in hand and that they depend on each other so that the music industry is in balance.

Here is an youtube video, which I found interesting and relevant to the topic explaining why big records labels are so great at creating superstars with Andy Epstein: