Popular Music Industry

The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock Edited by Simon Frith, Will Straw and John Street

The second chapter of this Book Focuses on the Popular Music Industry. This is the Industry that I am interested in being a part of. The author stresses how intangible music is. It is easily copied and stolen. For the music industry to be able to sell music it must first be able to be viewed as "storable". Through technology we are able to store music which creates this value. Right now my music is not storable. It is distributed through live shows and social media. No one can legally store any of my work or determine the value of it. In chapter 2 they also review ownership of music. One must establish ownership on their tangle product. The book not only addresses the limitations that artist have to protect something that is not physically there but also the limitations to putting a price on something the consumer can not hold. Yes, music can be physically purchased and stored in forms of vinyl, compact disk or cassette but with the progression of technology music is now most commonly purchased through mp3. 

This is why I am going through the processes of distributing my music online. I am doing so through the Popular Music Industry. Creating a mp3 file to be distributed through music purchasing sites. The steps to distributing music start with protection of ones work. A copyright can be made through the U.S. Copyright office. Online audio copyright costs $50. The next step in the process is to register with a publishing company. I chose B.M.I. located in Nashville, TN. B.M.I. and other publishing companies help to further protect and artist work. These companies are also in charge of collect and distributing royalties. I am now affiliated with B.M.I. under a two year contract costing me $150. The next step is distribute music online.  Artist either go through a label or an independent artists company to distribute music online. I am using CD Baby which is for independents artist to distribute their music electronically through iTunes, Spotify etc. This service cost $30 per song and it will monitor and pay the artist for all purchases made via iTunes, Amazon and  royalties from Spotify, etc. Completing these steps will allow any artist to legally publish their music online and give value to a now tangible product.

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