"This book is a sequel to my father's American Popular Music and its Business - the First 400 Years, also published by Oxford. It compares the music business to a funnel through which money spent by consumers and licensees flows before reaching performers and songwriters after deducting the cost of financing, managing, promoting, and marketing. It also traces how the unfurling digital age affected the delivery of music from analog vinyl and tape to digital successors from CDs to MP3s, to subscription streaming. The Big Six major label groups consolidated to the Big Three by 2020. The merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster completed the transition of ticketing from paper electronic to digital. Technology including the internet, smartphones, broadband, andsocial media platforms facilitated the management of the metadata emanating from the all-important relationship between consumers and creators, for without this relationship, there is no music business. The book has three main sections spanning 1985 to 1995, 1996 until 2006, and 2007 through 2019. Each has five chapters starting with "The Game of Musical Thrones" about the competition between record labels. "Records, Retail, Radio and the Charts That Bind Them" examines the revenue generated by record sales and radio airplay. Then comes "Publishing, Copyright Litigation, and Legislation", "The Creators of Music - Getting Paid", and "The Consumer - From Whom and How the Money Flows". Finally an epilogue covers the effects of COVID-19 in 2020 on all involved closing with a glimpse into the crystal ball of the digital future"--
American Popular Music and Its Business in the Digital Age: 1985-2020 by Rick Sanjek is the sequel to his father Russell Sanjek's American Popular Music and Its Business: the First 400 Years. This book offers a detailed and objective history of the popular music industry from the introduction of the compact disc to the shift to streaming, with particular emphasis on the creators, the consumers, and the music business professionals who, in Sanjek's telling, form the three major axes of the industry.
Each of the book's three sections--1985-1995, 1996-2006, and 2007-2019--has five chapters covering the same areas and issues. The first chapter in each section outlines the competition between the Big Six music conglomerates, their corporate structures, leadership, finances, and market share. The second chapter traces the synergy between the labels, the retail sector, radio, and the trade magazines whose charts are the pacemaker for the entire industry. Third comes music publishing, licensing, copyright, and legal issues including legislation, litigation, and infringement, followed by a focus on creators and how they earn their money. Each final chapter examines how, how much, and where consumers--who lead in adopting new technology--spend their money.
Underlying it all is an insider's perspective on the role that the CD, Napster, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, SoundScan, electronic ticketing, and other innovations had in redefining the business structure and revenue flow of the entire industry. Digital technology also affected the regulations, contracts, and financial transactions that define the complex business of music, as live performance transitioned from clubs, concert halls, and theaters to arenas, amphitheaters, and stadiums. Concurrently, recorded music evolved from analog to digital sound carriers through MP3 downloads and then to on-demand streaming files, ultimately affecting consumers, creators, and the music business infrastructure that connects them.
Finally, an epilogue includes the effects of COVID-19 in 2020 on all involved, closing with a glimpse into the digital future with the emergence of TikTok, livestreaming, immersive media, and artificial intelligence.
As the long awaited sequel to American Popular Music and Its Business: the First 400 Years, this book offers a detailed and objective history of the evolution and effect of digital technology from 1985 through 2020 on all segments of the popular music business from CDs and stadium tours to TikTok and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the creators, the consumers, and the business professionals who form the three major axes of the industry. Author Rick Sanjek, a 50-year industry veteran, combines the knowledge acquired during his decades of experience with scholarly research to create a compelling narrative of the events, economics, and innerworkings of the modern music business.
