HOW WE WOULD COMBAT MUSIC INDUSTRY ISSUES WITHIN TEK RECORDS

QUESTIONNAIRE FEEDBACK ANALYSIS - HOW WE WOULD USE IT WITHIN TEK RECORDS AND OUR MUSIC VIDEO

MUSIC PIRACY

Definition- The illegal downloading and sharing of music without copyright permissions  from the artists/record companies- infringing copyright laws.

The Digital Economy Act

Made in April 2009, the act states that internet service providers (ISPs) must carry out the following when investigating piracy:

-issue letter warnings

-slow down or suspend offenders internet access

-use a graduated response system (3 strikes and you're out)

-disclose identities to the police

-issue fines of up to £50000

-block illegal websites

Criticisms

There are many criticisms and inconsistencies within the act:

-Will public wi-fi users be affected? If someone downloads from public wi-fi could the whole thing be shut down? This is not fair on legitimate users

-It is not stated as to when a person should be fined and if it amounts to a criminal record

-As it is hard to pinpoint one offender, who will be prosecuted?

-Can piracy truly be proven? People may use someone elses wi-fi to carry it out or pretend to be somebody else

-Do the public agree with the act? (BBC found that 87% of people in their survey think uncensored internet access should be a fundamental right. Talk Talk found that 80% of young people will continue to illegally download and did a 'Do not disconnect us' campaign in 2009)

-The issue is too hard to police- is it really worth police time?

-Who should take the responsibility of policing it? Just ISPs or the public?

Limewire

The company was founded in 2000 by a former Wall Street trader- Mark Gorton. In 2010 they were forced to pay money to EMI, Sony and Universal for copyright infringement. They were finally shut down after the 4 year legal battle when a federal court in New York issued a permanent injunction against them. According to the RIAA, this caused US music sales to fall from 14.5 billion in 1999 to 7.7 billion in 2009. The NDP group also found that 58% of people who illegally downloaded music in 2009, from May, used the site.

The Pirate Bay

RIAA seek $13 million for 34 cases of copyright infringement from the founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg. Him and the co-founders had their one year jail sentence reduced to between 4 and 10 months on appeal. They were order to pay only $7 million. Warg still continues to commit illegal hacking and will be deported next week to Denmark to face charges of stealing confidential data. He is being deported from Sweden where he is serving a one year jail sentence for a separate offence. Police want to talk to him about a hack on computers holding police files.

Napster

The company has been sued by 18 record companies for it's illegal sharing of music- including the metal band Metallica. The complaint filed against them was 'the vicarious and contributory copyright infringement on behalf of a putative class of similarity situated music publishers.' They were prosecuted under the California Civil Code 980a)2). According to Napster they gave their users the unprecedented ability to locate music by their favourite artist in MP3 format- gaining 75 million users by 2000. The company grew at 200% per month from then on and forsaw that they would make money from email, advertising and commissions from links to other sites. It was estimated that the company was worth 60-80 million dollars with 87% of it's files being copyrighted. Nowadays, Napster has become a legitimate site with copyright permissions, a free trial and users that pay to use it. 

ISLAND RECORDS

Island Records is a label founded by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall in Jamaica. Based in the UK for many years, it has been owned by Universal Music Group (since 1988). The label is a subsidiary of The Island Def Jam Music Group in the US. Since 2007, there has been another label in Australia known as Island Records Australia, run by Universal Music Australia.  It remains as one of UMG's top record labels.

Trouble for the label

Island was once the largest indie record label in history and had a major influence on the progressive music scene of the UK in the early 70s. Island operated its own record pressing plant but had sometimes problems with quality control with many records being defective. It struggled as a business in the late and Bob Marley's death was disastrous to the companys popularity. Blackwell had also used the label to finance a new film production and distribution company, Island Alive. In 1987, the company was not able to pay $5 million it owed to U2 in royalties for 'The Joshua Tree' album which it had used to finance several unsuccessful films.
A deal was struck whereby U2 invested the unpaid $5 million into the company in exchange for a stake in the company-around 10%. In 1989 Blackwell sold Island Records and Island Music to PolyGram for £272 million. Island is no longer an independent company. Then in 1998 Polygram was purchased by Seagrams which is now within Universal Music Company

Success

In the UK, Island and Mercury merged to become divisions of Island Mercury Group. In the US Island and Mercury were merged into Island Mercury Group but decided to build on the strength of the success of the Def Jam Recordings so was renamed The Island Def Jam Music Group (which it is today). Under Universal, in the US it became a mostly pop/rock label and set up their own teen label- signing successes such as Justin Bieber. In 2001 Universal chose an Island Records single release to be the basis for Europe's first mobile marketing trial. Island Records Australia was launched in 2007 by Universal Music Australia.

Current Artists
-Drake
-Avicii
-Black Veil Brides
-Fall Out Boy
-Lower Than Atlantis
-The Vamps
-Snow Patrol
-Sam Sparro
-Tinchy Stryder
-Patrick Stump
-Skepta

Former artists
-Andrew W.K
-Busted
-Bob Dylan
-Fightstar
-Hanson
-Hoobastank
-N-Dubz
-U2

KERRANG MAGAZINE

Kerrang! is a weekly magazine devoted to rock music made by Bauer Media Group. It  published in June 1981 for the first time as a one-off piece in the Sounds newspaper. It is named after the word that sounds like a power chord on a distorted electric guitar. In the early 2000's it became the best-selling British music newspaper. The original owner was United Newspapers who then sold it to EMAP in 1991.

In the early 1990's the magazine placed many thrash and glam metal acts on the cover such as Mötley Crüe, Slayer, Metallica and Poison. They later discarded them when grunge acts such as Nirvana rose to fame- keeping up with popular demand. This was criticised by some fans that followed the magazines from the start as they seemed to just run whatever was popular.

Popularity rose again with the hiring or editor Paul Rees in 2000 with the introduction of nu metal- bands such as Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. Rees went on to edit Q magazine and Ashley Bird took over in 2003. They also coined the phrase "Thrash Metal" while making a reference to the Anthrax song "Metal Thrashing Mad" in issue number 62- making them stand out as a confident, successful publication. In 2008, EMAP sold its consumer magazine to current owner Bauer Media Group.

The website is dedicated to finding out more information on the current bands and upcoming events. It features an online shop, podcasts, message board, TV and radio ensuring even more opportunities to sell merchandise.  It also launched it's own online forum with the rants and raves section.

This is an extract from the Bauer Media Company website. It tells potential advertisers what, how and why to advertise in their magazine. They have to sell their product to these people to create extra revenue, whilst ensuring that the adverts are current and relate to their target audience of late teenagers and adults that they give on the site. This is the kind of magazine our company would advertise in as they often feature pop punk bands and news.

They also hold an annual awards ceremony to mark the most successful bands in the interests of their readers. The awards became one of Britain's most recognised award events. It is always presented by major music celebrities, with many others outside the industry attending the event. EMAP launched Kerrang! as a digital radio station across the UK which began as a 'jukebox' station, playing a back-to-back sequence of music. In June 2004, Kerrang! 105.2 was launched as a regional radio station. It has specialist programmes devoted to various genres and artists. It includes interviews with stars. Then , in 2001 EMAP launched Kerrang! TV. It covers the more mainstream side of rock like the radio station as well as classic rock. Kerrang TV is now a joint venture between Bauer Media Group and Channel 4. It holds it own tour throughout January a tour of rock music concerts around the UK. The tour has featured bands such as Bullet for My Valentine, Good Charlotte and Sum 41 (our chosen band). In 2012 Kerrang announced a new rock chart for the UK which is based upon airplay across Kerrang Radio, Kerrang TV and sales figures from the Official Charts Company. It is announced on Saturday mornings and feature twenty tracks. The latest chart can be viewed on Kerrang every Saturday at midday.

RECORD COMPANY LOGO

The record company that me and my team have created is Tek Records, a subsidiary of our AS company Tek Productions. They would specialise in the pop punk genre, promoting and marketing new artists as well as successful artists.

The logo holds conventions of pop punk. The colours (black and red) are dark, however, strong. This represents the boldness of the genre, along with the fact that it is simple. There is clear focus on the music.

The font is current and linked to my target audience as it is similar to that featured in high school, stereotypically. It is also comical and cartoon-like. This mimics the fun nature of the genre and the young people associated with it. 

The headphones also link to young people as that it the type of thing they tend to own. Pop punk was prominent in the 90's, therefore this type of headphones fits perfectly as that is what was popular at the time. 

SLIPKNOT- REINVENTION AND PROMOTION

This band has been around since 1996 and is still performing today. Therefore, they have the tough job of keeping their music up to date. Their latest album was released in 2008; however, they still manage to remain very successful without releasing new music.

They remain in the public’s view by headlining the massive metal festival Download in 2013, which was one of their 4 performances there. They take advantage of social networks and have a twitter, Facebook and MySpace page to promote their work. Each band member has their own pursuits outside of the band which promotes the band and the members themselves. The lead singer Corey Taylor is also in the band ‘Stone sour’ and Clown works with people with eating disorders.

To reinvent themselves previously, they have changed their masks over the years. This gives them new identities and added to their air of mystery. The band says that the masks are used to draw the attention away from themselves as individuals and put it on the music, even though they each now have their own star power. Slipknot have developed their image; changing their uniforms and each member's mask accordingly with the release of each album. They keep to their own individual themes so that the audience can recognise which member is which. In 2012, Slipknot released an app for iOS and Android called "Slipknot: Wear the Mask." The app invites fans to construct their own masks, allowing them to define what kind of Slipknot fans they are. This is still available today.

For each studio album they have done a concept tour to spread the popularity of their music and please the fans. This also brought about new merchandise including t-shirts, jumpers etc.

They decided the rules that define the current Slipknot:
1. "We do not answer to anyone"
2. "We do not worry about trends"
3. "We play what we want"
4. "We would not allow people to have any sort of influence on the band"

As the band create new albums and music, they renewed their merchandise, image and social networks with it. They then follow this up with a tour. This promotes them further and allows fans to follow the band easily. This preparation has allowed them to remain popular along with their frequent appearances at festivals.

Studio albums

• Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat (1996)
• Crowz (1997)
• Slipknot (1999)
• Iowa (2001)
• Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (2004)
• All Hope Is Gone (2008)

Tours

World Domination Tour (1999–2000) Ozzfest (1999) Livin la Vida Loco (1999) Tattoo the Earth (2000) Iowa World Tour (2001–2002) The Subliminal Verses World Tour (2004–2005) All Hope Is Gone World Tour (2008–2009) Memorial World Tour (2011) Knotfest (2012)

 

RESTRICTIONS

The rise in sexual content in music videos demands more restrictions and guidelines to what can be aired and to whom.

 In 2011 there was a government report concerning censorship within internet broadcasting.It was commissioned by the Prime Minister David Cameron and says that music videos should come with age ratings to protect children from overt sexual images and lyrics as children of all ages can access sites such as Youtube. The BPI recently announced plans to extend its plans, which resulted in stickers being put on CDs which contain strong language or adult themes. This also came with warnings on sites like Youtube and ITunes.

Youtube have their own guidelines as to what people can post. Anyone can post any sort of video on the site, however, within a few seconds it may get flagged as inappropriate and immediate action is taken. On their community guidelines page they give this quote- 'We're not asking for the kind of respect reserved for nuns, the elderly and brain surgeons. We mean don't abuse the site. Every cool new community feature on YouTube involves a certain level of trust. We trust you to be responsible and millions of users respect that trust, so please be one of them.'

However, artists try to be as extreme as possible to create popular videos whilst trying to fit within the guidelines. A recent story to hit the headlines concerns Miley Cyrus, the former innocent Disney star that has been creating raunchy content, songs and performances. Her performance at the VMA caused massive uproar as she was seen 'twerking' suggestively on fellow star Robin Thicke.

 

Her latest video for her song 'Wreking Ball' has also disrupted the music industry as she is naked throughout the video. No personal parts can be seen, however, the public has condemned her saying that it is 'not necessary'. During the video she also licks a hammer suggestively. Some fans take an opposing view to the masses. Stars such as Rhianna have been naked in videos and have also made suggestive videos such as S&M which was blocked by Youtube as it was seen as too raunchy for the site.

 

 

Here is the video for wrecking ball:



 

 This article is taken from Perez Hiltons website in which he comments on recent news within the pop world:

 

'Miley Cyrus couldn't be tamed by longtime label Hollywood Records, so she has now signed with RCA with the promise of allowing her to spread her MileyBird wings!!!
The former Disney Channel star will be joining the likes of Pink, Kelly Clarkson, and Chris Brown on the label, so we'd say her career is in some pretty talented and trustworthy hands.
Under the direction of RCA, the former Disney Channel star's next album will feature a slew of star-studded collaborators including Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, Da Internz, Mary J. Blige and Tyler, the Creator.'

It could be argued that a change in record label that had other motives for putting her on their books caused Mileys fame due to sexualisation. Before this move she was pretty much still the innocent Disney star making country music.

BPI feature parental guidelines on their site. Record labels must fit the following criteria to be able to apply the logo.

It is recommended that record labels apply the logo where the lyrics or content of a recording or music video that is commercially released contain:

 

- strong or coarse language

 

- depictions of or references to violence/physical/mental abuse/references to sexualised behaviour/racist/homophobic/misogynistic/other discriminatory language or behaviour

 

-dangerous or criminal behaviour (including references to or images of illegal drug use and/or the misuse of alcohol, tobacco and/or other substances) depicted in such a way that glamorises such behaviour or that may encourage imitation and which may be considered by a significant number of consumers to be offensive or unsuitable for children

They advise that the logo must be added to all packaging relating to media that includes this content. It must feature on ITunes logos or on any other sites on which the music can be purchased. The companies must research and consider the Considering the video recordings act 1984.

Most music that can be purchased on ITunes and on CD's feature the logo nowadays. It seems that record companies try to push the boundaries of these rules to gain as much popularity or knowledge of their artist as possible. My research on Miley Cyrus proves this.

YOUTUBE

Youtube has become the main source of music videos for our generation and the 21st century. It allows us to view videos in seconds free of charge. We can even log in and save our favourites and make playlists. It was formed in February 2005 by three former Paypal employees. It was said that the inspiration for YouTube came from Janet Jackson's performance in the 2004 Super Bowl when her breast was exposed during her performance. People could not easily find a clip of this online which led to the idea of a website on which people could share videos and allow the world to see current affairs first hand. Since they allowed anyone to post videos on the site its popularity grew. Music businesses saw this as an opportunity to have their own 'channels' that were official to market their artists songs. These kinds of channels are featured on the sites and are easier to find as opposed to individual users channels, to keep the industries on top. However, it has allowed people to rise to fame with videos that have been watched over and over. An example of this is the video filmed by a father of his two sons. Charlie bites the other son and his reaction was filmed and uploaded to Youtube. This seemed to spark an interest in the public as soon it had thousands of views.

 
An example of an artist who rose to fame via Youtube is Justin Beiber, His early videos were viewed by thousands until Usher decided to take him under his wing. The views then grew to millions. His song Baby got 913,491,165 views on the site. 

Youtube has remained successful due to the amount of content it has. It has something for everyone and displays niche broadcasting but in the same place. There are channels for each artists and the ability to customise it to your own personal preferences which suits every user. The ability to search also makes it appeal to audiences. As opposed to music channels which just play songs at you, Youtube allows people the freedom to search and select. This may be a cause of the lesser demand for the music video as people like to access what they want, fast. Therefore, music channels are being left behind for a faster version of the songs. Youtube cuts out TV adverts. A lot of the time the videos including the songs may not be official and just feature lyrics created by one user as they have no adverts, unlike official videos. Live performances are now seen as a novelty, therefore, there is not a decline in the popularity of them. However, there is a decline in the frequency as performances are now elaborate and expensive due to production costs, travel costs and the costs of paying artists to perform. Years ago this was not the case. 

This the top ten viewed videos of all time, taken from Wikipedia. I have checked again other websites that this is truthful-

Rank	Video name	Artist	Number of views (as of 15 Oct 2013)	Uploaded on
1.	"Gangnam Style"	PSY	1,793,660,941	15 July 2012
2.	"Baby"	Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris	913,017,758	19 Feb 2010
3.	"On the Floor"	Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull	698,004,418	3 March 2011
4.	"Love the Way You Lie"	Eminem featuring Rihanna	606,858,681	5 Aug 2010
5.	"Party Rock Anthem"	LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock	579,799,634	8 March 2011
6.	"Charlie Bit My Finger – Again!"	Harry and Charlie Davies-Carr	577,403,824	22 May 2007
7.	"Gentleman"	PSY	564,104,660	13 Apr 2013
8.	"Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)"	Shakira featuring Freshlyground	560,630,017	4 June 2010
9.	"Bad Romance"	Lady Gaga	540,357,181	23 Nov 2009
10.	"Ai Se Eu Te Pego"	Michel Teló	529,242,148	25 Jul 2011

Strikingly, all of these videos are recent and released in the past 4 years. Excluding the sequal to 'Charlie bit my finger'. This shows a demand for songs that are in the charts and that pop industries seem to carry on to rule the industry as a whole. Not one metal or pop punk song features on this list, even though they get thousands of views. The mainstream channels such as MTV and Starz Music seem to air these more popular songs as they reach the top of the charts. There is little room for other genres as they hardly ever reach the top ten. Arctic Monkeys often beat this with the appearance of the Indie genre in the charts. 'Do I wanna know?' is a recent hit of theirs from their new album 'AM'. It hit number 11 in the UK Singles Chart. Some songs from massively famous bands do reach the charts but not as often as pop artists. Artists such as Slipknot never feature in the UK singles chart. However, they appear in other charts featured on more niche channels such as Scuzz.

These figures support the success of Youtube as it conveys which songs and artists feature in the chart. The higher the song in the chart and how long they feature, they more Youtube views they get. This leaves little room for bands such as Slipknot and even Arctic Monkeys in the charts. The cycle and relation between the most popular and heard of UK charts and Youtube means that there will be little change in the future. 

SUM 41

The band we have chosen is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Canada.The band was formed in 1996 and consists of members Deryck Whibley (lead vocals and guitar), Tom Thacker (lead guitar) and Jason McCaslin (bass guitar). They have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. The band has an international record deal with Island Records. The band released their debut album, All Killer, No Filler in 2001. Their first single "Fat Lip" reached number-one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and is the band's most successful single to date. It went platinum in the United States, Canada and in the UK. The band has since released four more studio albums.

The band often performs, usually more than 300 times each year and holds long global tours, most of which last more than a year. They have won 2 Juno Awards. Sum 41 was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance for the song "Blood In My Eyes", however they lost to the Foo Fighters.

MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS #2

30 Seconds to Mars have released their new album 'Love, lust, faith and dreams' this year and to go with it they are touring. However, for them that was not enough excitement. They wanted to send their new song 'Up in the air' to space. 

The song went aboard SpaceX CRS-2 as the lead single from the album, and was made available to the Expedition 34 crew and the Expedition 35 crew also aboard the International Space Station to play upon berthing on March 4, 2013. The single itself was released on March 19, 2013 and was available immediately on Itunes. "Up in the Air" was nominated for Best Video at the Kerrang! Awards 2013 due to the publicity! 

The band is touring this year after performing at Download Festival in June (which I attended but not on the day they performed, sadly!). This boosted their publicity as they performed mainly songs from their new album. Their tour starts in November and I will be seeing them in Nottingham on the 21st! You me at six will be supporting them. 

MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS #1

This year the metalcore band Bring me the horizon have increased their fame. The band that originated in Sheffield have been around since 2004, however, the release of their new album 'Sempiternal' has shot them to big time fame this year. Sempiternal is the fourth studio album which was released on 1 April 2013 worldwide through RCA, a subsidiary label of Sony Music Entertainment. It includes songs such as 'Sleepwalking' and 'Shadow Moses'- my personal favourites!

They performed at Leeds/Reading festival in August then released tour dates and tickets. (I will be attending the Birmingham concert, yay!) This allowed them to get extra publicity from their performance which was seen by the 80000+ people crowd at Leeds. The tour is now virtually sold out.