The music industry sells music compositions, recordings, and live performances. It is made up of many organizations that fulfill traditional roles like the "Big 4" major record labels - Sony, Universal, Warner Music Group, and EMI. The music industry has undergone dramatic changes in the 21st century including Sony acquiring BMG in 2004 and Universal acquiring EMI in 2011. The "Big 4" record labels still play an important role in the music industry along with companies like Apple's iTunes store.

1. The music industry - How has it changed? Elliot Lambell

2. What is the music industry? The music industry or music business sells compositions, recordings and performances of music. Important music industry companies include Creative Artists Agency (a management and booking company) and Apple Inc. (which runs the world's largest music store, the iTunes Store). The music industry is a complex system of many different organizations, firms and individuals and has undergone dramatic changes in the 21st century. However, the majority of the participants in the music industry still fulfil their traditional roles.

3. The Big 4 The ‘big 4’ are the 4 major record companies, which include Sony, EMI, Universal and the Warner Music Group. It used to be the big 5, however Sony acquired BMG in 2004, and Universal acquired EMI in 2011.

4. Sony Sony is a Japanese corporation, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded on the 7th May 1946, and it is one of the leading manufactures for electronic products. Sony produces a wide range of products, including music, games consoles and laptops. Sony is a leading global manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products.

5. Universal Music Group Universal Music Group is the largest of the big 4 record companies. The headquarters are located in Santa Monica, and there are around 7000 employees. They co-developed Vevo, which is a site which allows free streaming of music videos. UMG has market leading positions in recorded music, music publishing, and merchandising. Universal Music Publishing Group is the industry's largest global music publishing operation, with 51 offices in 43 territories.

6. Universal Not only is there the ‘Universal music group’ but also there is ‘Universal pictures’. Universal pictures is one of the six major movie studios. In 2004, Universal broke away from UMG due to the acquisition of Vivendi’s ‘Vivendi Universal Entertainment’.

7. EMI EMI is a British multi-national music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and was one of the "big four" record companies, until it got swallowed by UMG on 12th November 2011. EMI also owns and runs the world-renowned recording studios Abbey Road in London and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. EMI Music has agreements with hundreds of digital partners to distribute their music across the globe, covering a huge variety of digital music business models and ideas

8. Warner Music Group WMG is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. They’re headquarters is located in New York, and as of 2008 have got 4000 employers. WMG is engaged in the recorded music business (including artist services) and the music publishing business. WMG has been building their artist services strategy to include an array of new businesses while increasing the number of expanded rights agreements they have with recording artists, which now includes more than half of their active global recorded music roster.