Abstract
Based on the thesis that creativity is a collective process of action and that innovation emerges from it, this concluding chapter will analyze the phonographic industry’s most important processes of action that have been at its core since the Rock ’n‘ Roll revolution. My focus, here, will be the four central processes of the industry’s value-adding chain: (1) the process of talent-scouting by Artist & Repertoire (A & R) management; (2) the process of music production and of physically manufacturing phonograms; (3) the process of music marketing and promotion; and (4) the process of phonogram distribution. All four of these processes work together, but for the purposes of analysis, I shall consider them individually. They all have one thing in common, as my comparison of individual historic periods of the music industry in the twentieth century will show: depending on how the individual processes are designed and run their course, they create more or less generous conditions for creativity to emerge.
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Notes
- 1.
Hull (1998: 30-40 and 123-127) describes the tasks and operational mode of A&R management.
- 2.
In Great Britain, talent for record productions was found in music halls, whereas in France it was the varietés, in Germany the cabarets, and in Austria the operetta stages.
- 3.
Think, for instance, of Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" or William C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues."
- 4.
On early Chess recordings with Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess can even be heard playing the drums.
- 5.
Just think of the long fight between ASCAP and the broadcasting industry in the U.S., which resulted in the founding of BMI in 1940.
- 6.
The Warner Music Group owns Warner/Chappell Music Inc., which controls more than one million copyright protected pieces of music. The music publisher Warner Bros. Publications Inc. is directly subordinated to Warner/Chappell. The Universal Music Group owns the Universal Music Publishing Group and the music publisher Rondor Music. Through Sony/ATV Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment Inc. owns the rights to exploit, among others, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix. The Bertelsmann Music Group makes use of its rights to exploit music through BMG Music Publishing. The EMI Group now only consists of the two business areas, EMI Recorded Music and EMI Music Publishing.
- 7.
This study will only tangentially deal with the copyright system and the legal exploitation of music.
- 8.
Superstars receive a commission between 16 and 20%.
- 9.
A comprehensive account of standard record contracts in the U.S. music industry can be found in Passman (1991, pp. 53–166), Hull (1998, pp. 127–134), and Krasilovsky and Shemel (2000, pp. 13–31).
- 10.
Generally speaking, 150,000 sold copies represent a success for newcomers (Passman 1991, p. 82). Based on the assumptions stated above, this amounts to $67,500 in income for the artist, minus advances already paid.
- 11.
Normally, labels contractually ensure that they have exclusive rights to the artist and band names for the purposes of record releases and supporting marketing activities for the contract's duration. During this period, artists, or a third party, are not allowed to use the artist name for purposes of advertising and promotion without explicit approval of the record label. Even after the contract expires, the record label continues to have the right to use the artist name for products that originated during the period of the contract (see Krasilovsky and Shemel 2000, pp. 345–346).
- 12.
Piore and Sabel (1984) formed the concept of flexible specialization. It refers to the overcoming of mass production by a return to artisenal methods that use the latest technologies. Examples of this are the clothing manufacturers of the Italian Emilia-Romagna or the manufacturers of textile machines in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Storper and Christopherson (1987) as well as Storper (1989) transferred the concept of flexible specialization to the U.S. film industry, something that Aksoy and Robins (1992) fiercely criticized. For more on the topic of flexible specialization in the music industry, see Hesmondhalgh (1996).
- 13.
The Warner Music Group combined its production sites to form WEA Manufacturing; the Universal Music Group created Universal Manufacturing; and the Sony Entertainment Group founded Sony Disc Manufacturing. Recently, the Bertelsmann Music Group severed the Sonopress record plants from the Bertelsmann AG and incorporated them into the Arvato AG. EMI have owned CD production sites in Swindon near London and Jacksonville, Illinois since 1986.
- 14.
This corresponds to the narrow marketing concept that especially the major companies pursue. "The 'marketing' department at most labels includes primarily the sales, promotion, and publicity functions" (Hull 1998, p. 149).
- 15.
This is primarily true for EMI and its HMV retail chain, which was sold in May 2002 in the stock market. Yet, the EMI Group continues to control a market share of 42.65%. (Annual Report of the EMI Group 2002).
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Tschmuck, P. (2012). Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry’s Value-Added Chain. In: Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28430-4_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28430-4_13
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