Music Industry: An Overview

The music industry is a term used for those who sell musical recordings and performances. Everyone from record labels and producers to engineers and record companies – not to mention the musicians themselves - are included within the term. Throughout the years, the music industry has evolved - and in many ways dissolved - since the early days of music. The industry started out with the printing of sheet music and grew to production of records, cassettes, and CDs. It was typically the norm up until the 1990s, for musicians to make a large sum of money for the release of a new album. The advent of album sales online - and the issue of piracy as a result of that (read: Napster in the 1990s) - musicians tend to make most of their money on touring and merchandising these days. In 2007, Radiohead groundbreakingly released their album 'In Rainbows' online at a "make your own price" rate.

The music industry has also shifted from mom-and-pop music stores to big chains like Best Buy. Bands (ie. the Eagles, AC/DC and Pearl Jam) have also chosen to release their albums exclusively at stores like Target or Walmart. Some artists also release their album independently to ensure a higher success rate financially. Overall, the majority of music is purchased online nowadays with Apple's iTunes serving as the largest online music source - yet album sales as a whole have dropped significantly each year of this decade.

Major Record Labels:
EMI
Sony
Universal
Warner

Changes in music trends:
LiveNation
Napster
Satellite radio