Music Industry

The music industry or music business sells compositions, recordings and performances of music. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate within the industry are the musicians who compose and perform the music; the companies and professionals who create and sell recorded music (e.g., music publishers, producers, studios, engineers, record labels, retail and online music stores, performance rights organisations); those that present live music performances (booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew); professionals who assist musicians with their careers (talent managers, business managers, entertainment lawyers); those who broadcast music (satellite and broadcast radio); journalists; educators; musical instrument manufacturers; as well as many others.


In the first decade of the 21st century consumers began to use computers and computer networks as the primary means to record, distribute, store and play music. This technological shift caused widespread economic changes and fundamentally changed the relationships between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores, the technology industry and the consumer. The rise of digital music consumption options contributed to a few fundamental changes in consumption. First the decline of album sales. With the A la carte sales models increasing in popularity, consumers no longer download entire albums but rather choose single songs.


So-called "pure pop" music, such as power pop, features all these elements, utilising electric guitars, drums and bass for instrumentation; in the case of such music, the main goal is usually that of being pleasurable to listen to, rather than having much artistic depth. Pop music is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and desires to have a mass audience appeal.


Examples of some of this "pure pop" include: 

However Pop is starting to branch into more deep and meaningful sounds that originated from genres such as Soul, RnB and Motown. Artists like Adele, Beyonce  and John Legend are perfect examples of this as it has taken the classic "pop" sound and flipped it whilst remaining in the genre.