The Music Industry

Music Corporations
The music industry is mainly dominated by four multi national corporations Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and EMI. These corporations are referred to as 'The Majors'. The majority of these have stakes in other industries besides music such as film, tv and electronics. Most of these major corporations own subsidiary companies which are smaller in order to reach different target audiences who are interested in different genres such as Columbia and Syco these companies are known as major independents.n there are independents, these are a number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors. These companies often concentrate on a smaller number of acts within a specialised industry. An example of a highly successful independent company is Domino Records. It is often that record labels begin as small independents but then are bought by a major and turn into major independents making their way up the music company chain.

The Artists
Artists themselves can be divided into two categories; organic and synthetic. Organic is used to describe bands where the music comes first, this means they make the kind of music that they want to make then the signed record labels try and sell this music to the correct market segment. It often appeals to a niche audience but can occasionally appeal to a mass audience as well. Synthetic refers to artists created by ways such as 'The XFactor' as money is the ultimate goal. A gap in the market is identified and then exploited by the development of the music and artist to suit the gap. This can be related to acts such as; The Spice Girls and JLS as they are more manufactured.

Synergy
The music video exists as only one part of the multimedia campaign as it is only one way that a song is promoted. The music industry uses a number of different media for different purposes such as radio, tv, print and film. There is often a clear sense of synergy across a number of media platforms.