iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the Digital Era

198 Pages·2014·1.113 MB·English

by  David Arditi

iTake-Over

iTake-Over
The Recording Industry in the Digital Era
David Arditi
ROWMAN&LITTLEFIELD
Lanham•Boulder•NewYork•London
PublishedbyRowman&Littlefield
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Copyright©2015byDavidArditi
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany
electronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems,
withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomayquote
passagesinareview.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Arditi,David,1982–
iTake-over:therecordingindustryinthedigitalera/DavidArditi.
pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4422-4013-1(cloth:alk.paper)–ISBN978-1-4422-4014-8(ebook)
1.Soundrecordingindustry.2.MusicandtheInternet–Economicaspects.I.Title.
ML3790.A762015
384–dc23
2014033013
TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Contents
ListofFigures vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xvii
PartI:TransformationsintheRecordingIndustry 1
1 RecordingIndustryinTransition 3
2 TheExpansionofConsumptionintheRecordingIndustry 21
PartII:TheStateinMusic 41
3 Copyright:ACriticalExploration 43
4 CriticalJunctures 55
PartIII:TheRecordingIndustryandLabor 71
5 MusicianLabor 73
6 Victims,Musicians,andMetallica 91
PartIV:DigitalDistributionandSurveillance 103
7 DistributionThenandNow 105
8 WatchingMusicConsumption 125
Conclusion 139
Notes 145
v
vi Contents
Bibliography 155
Index 163
AbouttheAuthor 167
List of Figures
Fig.1.1 TotalRetailValueofMusicintheUnitedStates
(1995–2009)accordingtotheIFPI 5
Fig.1.2 DataonShipmentsbetween1973and2007
fromtheIFPI’sRecordingIndustryinNumbers
(2001–2011) 8
Fig.1.3 CDShipments(RIAA)andCDSales(Nielsen
SoundScan),1995–2008,intheUnitedStates
(inmillions) 10
Fig.1.4 OverallMusicSalesintheUnitedStates
accordingtoNielsenSoundScan(1995–2010) 11
Fig.1.5 AlbumSalesintheUnitedStatesaccordingto
NielsenSoundScan(2000–2010) 12
Fig.1.6 GlobalSingleSalesaccordingtotheIFPI
(1973–2007) 13
Fig.2.1 CDSales(NielsenSoundScanData)versusCD
Shipments(RIAAData)intheUnitedStates
(1995–2008) 24
Fig.2.2 RevenuefromSubscriptionServicesaccording
totheRIAA(“Year-EndIndustryShipmentand
RevenueStatistics”2013) 34
Fig.7.1 CostsContributingtothePriceofaCD 107
vii

Preface
Despite talk of doom and gloom for the music business, the case for opti-
mism—and the prospects for massive growth in the overall music ecosys-
tem—isstrong.(Csathy2014)
Fortherecordingindustry,digitizationmeanschange.Oldmusicformatsare
obsolete; the MP3 has replaced the compact disc (CD). There are no longer
pricebarrierstolisteningtomusic;freestreamsor$0.99digitalsingleshave
replaced $15 CDs. Music distribution happens over networks instead of at
recordstores;musiclistenerscaninstantaneouslyaccessnearlyallmusicvia
iTunesratherthanspendingtimedrivingtothemall,findingaparkingspace,
anddiggingthroughalbumcrates,onlytofindthatthestoredoesnotcarrya
particular album. These changes have rocked the recording industry and the
broadermusicindustryoverthebetterpartoftwodecades.
However,changehasbeentheconstantfortherecordingindustryaseach
new technology creates an opportunity to sell old music on new media for-
mats. Whether we discuss the change from 78-rpm records to 33 1/3-rpm
records;monotostereo;AMradiotoFMradio;recordsto8-trackcartridges;
8-tracks to tape cassettes; tapes to CDs (and everything in between)—the
recording industry adapted to new media, often propelling the change for-
ward. In fact, selling albums in new formats to people who already own an
album—calledthealbumreplacementcycle—isanimportantrevenuestream
for major record labels. So the recording industry always plays a role in
formattransformations.
In 2014, the recording industry is looking to the next transformation to
encouragethe album replacement cycleby developing the MP3’ssuccessor.
AudiophileshaveneverbeenfansofMP3sbecausethecompressionusedto
createthesesmallfilesdegradessoundquality(Sterne2012).SincetheMP3
was always a product of the constraints of limited Internet bandwidth and
ix