Music Licensing: Commercialization Of Art

Even so, when the artist put their time and hard work into making songs that will catch the subscribers attention just for it be free. For instance, Jacob Carter of “The Changing Landscape of the Music Business” quotes “In November of 2014, award-winning musician Taylor Swift pulled her entire music catalog from Spotify, a popular streaming app, claiming that their business model suggests that music does not hold much worth.” This shows that Taylor Swift does not believe with the fact that her music is just out there for free and she not receiving money just for it be out there for the public. Thus, Darrius Johnson of “Selling Out Not Worth the Risk” quotes “In many situations, a record label owns the rights to an artist’s music, and if they license a song to a company or other party the artist has no control over how the song can be used.” To clarify, this information artists would not have their own opinion of doing any commercial because their music doesn’t belong to them but the record labels. This proves, that some artist has their opinion about their music they make and they just want to be free for the world to have because they took their time to create

Many artists and record companies do not think that it is a good thing to have their music available for free because they feel that they will lose a lot of money. The thing that they need to realize is that technology is only going to get better and they need to use it

Michael R. Cohen, 25B WEST 'S LEGAL FORMS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY § 23:22 (2014) (“Since it would be virtually impossible for publishers or songwriters to monitor and control the large numbers of users of their songs, the enforcement and control of such performance rights usually falls to one of three performing rights organizations ....”).

Furthermore, various songs are specifically written with certain intentions and nuances to express the artist’s values and beliefs about a topic such as, love or the natural phenomena. Based on the passage, “ Source 2: Selling Out Not Worth the Risk”, it states “ But when outside interests enter the mix, they can replace the passion in an artist’s music and turn the art into just another tool for corporations.” To emphasize, businesses have the power to change any lyric in the song, so the song would lose it’s meaning and instead be about the product the business is selling. Even though, allowing corporations use an artist’s song for advertising a product, enables the artist’s song to be heard from an even more

The first problem is the royalty fees made with labels. An artist’s album can cost anything from $15,000 to $200,000 (Recording Connection) and the artist is often left in debt after which is slowly paid back through the sales of their own records which only leaves them a fraction of what the original product was sold for. Another major problem with most major record labels is that their sole reason to get artists is to further their own profit. Most major labels put business before art,

As a musician, I know the pains and time consumption of making new music. It takes a good amount of effort, focus, and work just to create three minute song, and giving this tough work to another person to use is basically throwing away all the work the band just did. That is why I believe artists should not use their music in advertising.

Instead of working on their own music, and their career, they are working on an advertisement that might ruin their career as an artist. Through this can come stress, even as a young and new artists. Instead of creating an identity for them, they are letting a product define them. Instead of working on withholding their identity, they are working on someone else's identity. By upholding and promoting a certain product or company, could be leaving their fans in the dust. An artists writing about true meaning and feelings in a song, then going to do advertising about some polar opposite, "can leave your fans feeling betrayed" (Johnson). This may make fans lose interest and respect. Artrists passion are fading because their "art is turning into just another tool for corporations" (Johnson). Artists are leaving it on the line for a company to define them, when they should be defining themselves.

Over the past fifty years, the British Music Publishing industry has undergone dramatic changes. It has evolved as an entity with innovations in technology, changes and creations of laws and new mediums to promote and exploit songs to a wider audience. Therefore, the way in which the music publishing industry operates and exploits its assets has completely transformed, and continues to do so at a rapid pace. This paper will attempt to explore the ways in which publishers exploit song copyrights and the way in which this has changed over the past 60 years. It is important to define what is meant by copyright and its role within the industry. The Performing Right Society website states: “Copyright

Music Copyright is a very important aspect of the music industry. The Copyright law was established to preserve the creativity and rights of authors, composers, performers of expression. Copyright is the law that protects the property rights of the creator of an original work in a fixed tangible medium. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright) A fixed tangible medium is something substantial like copying lyrics on paper or putting a song on tape or CD. Copyright can be seen every where in the music industry. Many music artist of our culture today have been involved in copyright issues. Recently, on MTV news it was stated that, "As the music industry becomes increasingly concerned about protecting the

Music has become a center piece of life; however it comes with a vigorous price unknown to most of the public. The music industry is littered with corruption. My proposed research problem focuses on the manipulation and control the music industry has upon its artists through an unescapable 360 deal, which in and of itself is not only reducing an artist to almost indentured servitude, but also cripples record labels themselves. The 360 deal is a common mandatory contract record labels utilize to financially support an artist. This includes advances and funds for promotion, touring, and marketing, all which the artist has to pay back to the label. I believe this problem is significant and warrants further research because the record labels are unconstitutionally taking away artists rights in favor of their own greed, in turn, leaving the artist without ownership of their own songs, money, and rights to royalties.

Also in this modern digital age there are no other routes available via the Internet whereby the whole Record Company bit can be bypassed; smaller acts are building up a following by doing live gigs and home studio recordings and then building up their fan base on websites such as FaceBook, MySpace, 2ndLife, BroadJam and releasing their music as pay for downloads freeing them up from the costly recording and distribution process. These acts are also looking after their own Music Publishing as well, keeping a bigger share of any eventual royalties (these are discussed in depth later in this essay). Huge bands such as RadioHead are also jumping on to the Internet bandwagon, releasing their latest album as ‘pay what you think it is worth '; this is discussed in more detail under the Marketing area of the Industry.

Money can be a problem when it comes to buying music. “Illegal music is free, but legal music cost money and whoever owns that server gets all the money.” (Judith Baughman). We are also wasting money like the author, Judith Baughman said, “Having to get legal music can sometimes add up to a lot of your money and you are just wasting your hard earned cash on music that should be for free.” We should not have to have to pay for music; we should get music for free.

The music industry is an oligopoly. Since the late 1800’s people like Thomas Edison have been buying up patents in communication technology, forming monopolies, leading to a non-competitive entertainment industry. With only a handful of corporations controlling all aspects of acquisition, distribution and marketing of music, harsh business principles create an exploitative industry that takes the best of what artists have to offer and leaves many of them unable to support themselves. Beginning in the 1950’s with payola and white cover music and ultimately evolving into iTunes and Spotify, the music industry has grown into a billion dollar industry with far-reaching influence and control. Contracts rarely serve the artists’ best interest and many are left out to dry when their usefulness has expired.

The internet is the one media that brings up the most controversy in bands spreading their music. Whether they promote it or not their music is downloaded for free on the internet. Most bands do not like that their music is downloaded for free, but they can’t do much to stop it. In a way downloading music for free could bring the musicians even more money. If a person likes one of the songs they downloaded off of the internet they may be inclined to buy the entire album or at least the single. After the person buys the latest album they may even buy earlier albums from the same artist if they like the music enough. The internet has

Throughout the ages people from all around the world have enjoyed music in their everyday lives. Whether it be rock, hip hop, classical, or country, artist in every genre have put their heart and soul into creating the ear stimulating music that we have come to tap our feet and sing along with each and every day. That being said, a major problem is occurring in the music industry.Artist in today 's music world are getting paid a fraction of what they should be getting paid when it comes to the music that they create for consumers to hear.This revenue reduction also outlines a greater problem which is crippling the music industry today.In this paper i will discover what is causing this decline in revenue for artist and also try to give opinions of both the consumer/ music websites and also the music industry on these issues. I will also input my opinion on how i feel about these ongoing issues and whether or not i believe the present system is adequate or if something must be changed for the greater good. .