Video Killed The Radio Star

Video Killed The Radio Star

 Over the years tech has evolved in the music industry. The earliest known device for recording sound was the Phonautograph, it was invented by Edouard Martinville. It worked by talking into a barrel made of plaster of paris; the barrel blew sound onto a bristle of horse hair, causing it to vibrate and draw sound waves.
 Later editions (gramophone) used a wooden barrel blowing sound onto a quill that wrote down sound waves on blackened paper. This started the evolution of selling music and producing it but when it came to bigger productions it wasn't very efficent. Magnetic recording was then followed after this, its basically made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long narrow strip of plastic film. After this the cassette tape was made, this consisted of two miniature spools, between which a magnetically coated plastic tape is passed and wound. Next came the Digital Audio Recording, it was used on tapes for a long period before CD's were made. Now-a-days music is found/used on softwares such as itunes and downloading youtube files.

We can see from this that this will affect music makers and consumers. Music makers that make techno or any sort of electronic music wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for evolution of technology. Devices such as Theremin and sound synthesizers did not even exist at the start of technology. Personally i think that the evolution of music was a crucial development and contributed a substantial amount to music in general. If it weren't for the evolution of music technology, genres wouldn't exist, music production wouldn't be as good due to in advanced software and sound quality. Also devices such as MP3's also affected music makers as when these were created this is when it was more recognisable to illegally download music for free as you didn't need to buy music.

Now-a-days the business industry has hugely affected music as it has got more involved to the way music is controlled. The truth is that big business controls the types of music and artists that get exposure and become popular. The record industry is a 14 billion dollar business. The three major record labels; Sony, Universal(incorporates EMI) and Warner Music group dominate 85% of the market when it comes to sales of Compact Discs. Leaving only 15% for the hundreds of independent record labels and thousands of artists out there.  When Indies get too big or an artist starts making noise these major companies usually pick up the artist or label. This way they control artist/label, get a percentage of the sales and keep competition to a minimum. This is why artists would rather work independently rather than sign with major record and also its due to the lack of a market for the music being created. By working independently they are most likely to make more money as they wont be in debt with anyone and also they don't have to be a 'manufactured musician', they can be themselves.

Many popular artists in our time will have sponsors. This means the artist/s will get free supplies of the product however they must promote it in almost everything they do, down to gig's, videos and interviews etc. Being involved in the sponsor, they are not allowed to have any relations to other companies especially if they are competitive example if you was sponsored by Adidas you can not be seen wearing Nike. When an big artist is sponsored by a certain product it draws the fans closer to product as they'll feel quite connected to them. Recently 'Pepsi' offered Beyonce a $50 million deal, the deal involved standard advertising like commercials and print ads etc. I think Pepsi's idea was to not take over her creative control like advertise themselves in her videos as she is know to be a very smart business woman who takes control of her own visuals. However they made her do deliberate advertising.

At big festivals example Glastonbury, you will see a lot of promotion being held with banners and logos for various types of companies. Companies try and put there logo everywhere so it can be visible to the audience. This type of marketing is meant to familarise people with the product subconsciously.

An example of product placement is seen in Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' video of the advertisement of ninetendo wii which can be seen at 2:44

This has made the audience familiar with the product and you can see here that the music industry has become less about music sales, as they are having to find different ways of gaining the profit.