The document discusses how advances in media technology have impacted various aspects of the music industry, including ownership, production, marketing, distribution, and exchange, using Warner Music Group as a case study. It describes how technology has allowed larger labels to buy smaller ones and given artists new ways to release and promote music. While new sites have more widely spread music, illegal file sharing has negatively impacted label profits from physical sales.

1. Warner Music Group

2. Key Terms Ownership- The state of being an owner. The legal right to possession of something. In the case of record labels it is ownership of copyright, artists and of smaller labels. Production- The Organising and presenting of entertainment (Music). Marketing-The act of selling and buying. All of the actions taken in doing this including advertising, shipping, storing and selling. Distribution- The spreading out of a product over a large area. Exchange- Where and how you access music. Eg: HMV, Live Stream, File Share.

3. How media technology has effected these areas of production. The changes in media technology has affected ownership because it has allowed larger record labels to buy smaller companies, broadening their target audience and broadening their signed bands and profits. Changes in technology have introduced things such as the MP3 and “Youtube”. This means that music does not have to be accessed through only radio and CD’s etc. This has effected production because not all records need to be available on a CD thus artists can release download tracks via the internet. With new technology, marketing can begin over social networking sites such as “facebook” , music can be bought online from sites such as Amazon and applications like itunes. The distribution of music has been effected because of the introduction of sites such as “limewire” and the use of file share over MSN. This is a positive effect as it gets the music widely spread and can be spread world wide a lot easier than the distribution of CDs. However, it effects the profits of the label as this music is often obtained illegally without payment. Rather than the exchange of music holding place from the radio or from a music shop such as HMV (which was the case 10 years ago) it is now possible for people to access music online from places such as “Youtube”, “Itunes”, “Amazon” and even personal web pages such as “Myspace” which is used to promote bands.

4. Radio 1 Playlist The following artists appeared on the playlist and were a part of Warner Brothers Music Group. Jason Derulo Arctic Monkeys Kids In Glass Houses Paramore Plan B Hadouken!

5. Long tail statistics for Warner Music Group from lastfm.com Arctic Monkeys- 92,546,800 plays Paramore- 69,236,670 plays Nightwish- 64,697,010 plays My Chemical Romance- 60,382,242 plays Ramones- 31,827,023 plays Mayday Parade- 9,338,021 plays Hadouken!- 5,847,413 plays Jason Derulo- 1,616,673 plays Kids In Glass Houses-1,544,218 plays Plan B- 1,121,185 plays B.o.B- 1,019,537 plays M2M- 701,085 plays The Cookies- 57,088 plays

6. Arctic Monkeys Paramore Hadouken! Jason Derulo Kids in Glass Houses Plan B Ramones My Chemical Romance Nightwish M2M B.o.B The Cookies Mayday Parade

7. Artists from Warner Music Group Performing at Music Festivals in 2010 and Who Performed in 2009 Guns ‘N’ Roses – Reading 2010 Faith No More – Reading 2009 Lost Prophets- Reading 2010 Paramore- Reading 2010 Funeral For A Friend- Reading 2009 Pendulum- Reading 2010/ Glastonbury 2009 The Prodigy- Glastonbury 2009 Muse- Glastonbury 2010 The Cribs (Warner Music Group US)- Glastonbury 2010 Seasick Steve- Glastonbury 2010

8. Music Festivals- Renaissance Music festivals have made a renaissance in recent years due to developments in the music industry. The growth in technological convergences, physical CD sales have dropped due to the alternate means of accessibility made available by new technology. Because of this, record Labels and artists need alternative ways to get their music heard. Advancements in technology have made it easier for people to access music illegally for free. Because of this labels need to make money through other means of distribution of music so have introduced more gigs and festivals.

9. OWNERSHIP Warner Music Group is a subsidiary group of the parent company “Time Warner” Time Warner also owns Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Comics, Time Warner Book group and AOL.

10. Time Warner AOL Dc Comics Warner Music Group Warner Bros. Warner Book Group Rhino Entertainment Independent Label Group Atlantic Records Group Warner Bros. Records Inc. 1 st and 15 th Entertainment Atlantic Records Bad Boy Records Elektra Records Fueled By Ramen Records Fort Knocks Entertainment Lava Records Roadrunner Records Grand Hustle Records Warner Bros. Records Asylum Records Beluga Heights Records 143 Records Blacksmith Records Maverick Nonesuch Records Reprise Records Festival Mushroom Records RuffNation Records Sire Records Atco Records Rhino Records Cordless Recordings East West Recordings Adeline Records Afternoon Records Better Looking Records The Bevonshire Label Born and Bred Records Broken English Ferret Records Fearless Records Floodgate Records Liberty and Lament Montalban Hotel One Eleven Records

11. PRODUCTION Rhino Records from Warner Music Group are particularly promoting Vinyl records with the slogan “Indulge your Vinyl Fetish” Vinyls are also making a comeback with the comeback of retro music and style. Warner Music Group sometimes releases limited edition vinyl records for novelty retail to extend sales to consumers. The introduction of social networking and streaming sites such as MySpace and Youtube have allowed amateur artists to broadcast their talent for free in hope that they may get noticed my a promotion company or a record label who can get their music heard and spread. Websites such as Last Fm and Youtube offer a suggestion feature in which they suggest artists you may like after listening to similar artists. This could be a way for labels to recruit new artists. Facebook offers artists and groups to have a group in which people can join to get updates and access information and music from the artist. Gaining many fans on this may help them get noticed by record labels.

12. MARKETING The majority of bands nowadays use free social networking pages to promote themselves, the most common of these is MySpace which is used by Paramore, Lost Prophets, Muse and The Prodigy to name but a few of Warner’s Artists. Warner also has their own website to promote their artists as well as the subsidiary labels of Warner. Warner have an account on “youtube”. However, recently they have removed the majority of their artists works from this site as the believe it encouraged piracy of their tracks, they also removed any videos on the site including music from any of their artists.

13. Fans Responses to “Youtube” Deletion.

14. MARKETING Time Warner, the parent company, owns American TV channels such as CNN and formerly owned part of MTV in which their artists could be interviewed and broadcast one, also, Warner Music Group owns NME which has both a TV channel and a Magazine on which their artists can be interviewed on or in. Warner organises a lot of gigs and performances due to the growing popularity of them. Also the support acts for bands often tend to be on the same label as the main act to promote their smaller artists as well as their larger artists. Bands are also advertised in films, for example Muse, Paramore and Linkin Park all appeared on the “Twilight” soundtrack, this movie was produced by Warner Bros. This has promoted these bands to a great extent along with the promotion of the film saga. On the Wanermusicgroup.com website, there is a revolving menu of artists on this label which visitors can scroll through thus promoting other artists on their label.

15. DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE In HMV, CDs (Albums) from the Warner Music Group are generally priced £5-8. New albums begin around £8-9 but lower to around £5 when the music has been distributed more. In Tesco, Albums from Warner Music Group are similarly priced and in their CD charts, Warner artists such as Muse, Michael Buble, Plan B, Jason Derulo all feature in their charts. The Warner Music Group website does not offer music downloads, however a lot of their music is available on iTunes to buy. This record label is very cautious about people obtaining their music for free so use commercial sites such as iTunes and Amazon to sell their tracks. The improvements in media technology (mainly via the internet) has affected Warner music group in both positive and negative ways. iTunes and Amazon, on which people may purchase music from this label, have benefitted the label in their marketing, distribution and exchange. However, Warner Music Group have recently decided to try and prevent their music from appearing on sites such as last.fm and youtube because of piracy issues arising in recent years. These new technologies has seen a dramatic increase in file share, and downloads. There are less sales of physical CDs in favour of downloaded tracks for MP3 players and IPods. Fans normally choose access their music from friends or from downloadable content such as limewire or winmx for free because it has become much easier to download and access.