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Media Production is dominated by global institutions which sell their products and services to a national audience. How far do you agree? The music industry was previously owned by The big four’: MI, Sony Music Entertainers, Warner and universal Music Group. However, due to the increase in popularity of Indies labels, The big four’ has now turned in to ‘The big three’, as MI sold to Veined, who owns the universal Music Group. The Big Three’ also have a big advantage as they own all stages of production and distribution, which means they an use cross media synergy and convergence to advertise their artists.
Media conglomerates allow for cross media synergy as they own large numbers of companies in various mass media. For example Aftermath own DC hero, and they also signed Amine. Therefore, by playing Amine’s songs on DC hero Aftermath can make a larger consumption. Also compliments like Sony use vertical integration to bring technology together and give cheaper access to those artists owned by Sony through the devices. Whereas artists that sign to Independent labels will not be advertised to the same extent as those who have signed to one of ‘the big three’ because Independent labels don’t have as much money as global Institutions.
The group Pastille were first signed to an independent label called Young and Lost club”, however their songs only became well known when they signed to MI. This is due to global institutions being able to buy air time and advertise their artist’s music. In comparison, Independent labels have become increasingly popular over the last few years, because they allow artists to have more control over their own music and style, whereas The Big Three’ only focus on galling profit and don’t care about their artists.
Although The Big Three’ are able to use cross media synergy and buy alarm time for their artists, it has become easier for artists signed to independent labels to promote their own music through social networking. Bands such as Radioed have ditched the label MI and decided to use digital distribution. Radioed have turned to digital sales, following their innovative approach to distributing In Rainbows, it was released online for whatever price the customer wanted, bypassing the traditional Institutions.
Artists are becoming more able to promote their own music, at the expense of the labels that are slowly losing their place and are struggling to adapt. The labels are no longer needed by artists who can now reach their audiences themselves through the internet, particularly established artists who already have the connections that labels can offer. However they continue to offer mass appeal and distribution as well as marketing opportunities. Artists like the Illumines and Kate Nash use the social network to make their songs popular and well-known. This
Is because proliferation In technology (for example web 2. 0) allows for free promotion through social media. A great example of self promotion is Mackerel, who own their own label, and are also currently at number seven in the charts. In conclusion, I believe that Independent labels are becoming a lot more popular due to artists being able to promote their own music because of the increase of people indulging in social networking. However, I still believe that the global institutions are very promoting their artists through billboards, radio and cross synergy.
Global institutions still mostly dominate media production as the majority of the money made from album sales goes to ‘The Big Three’. Also few artists on an independent label become huge stars, although Adele has accomplished this. Lastly, I believe that independent labels will continue to become increasingly popular for new artists, Noose music particularly appeals to a niche market, however due to ‘The Big Three’ owning all stages of production, I think they dominate media production to a much bigger extent.