About Creative Industries – Music
The next Creative Industries article is probably the music industry, one of the most popular and successful creative industries.
A brief history of music cannot be succinctly compressed, with a long history dating back to
since Antiquity, continuing into the Middle Ages and then the Renaissance, followed by the Baroque period, the Romantic and Classical periods. Later, the 20th century innovated with new musical experiments, with the emergence of the first trends towards jazz, blues, rock, etc.
Clearly, like the fashion industry, music also developed in direct relation to existing socio-political events. In the case of fashion, we mention the example of British punk of designer Vivienne Westwood, whose music was influenced by the Sex Pistols. An even more popular example is the period of the 1960s and 1970s and the freedom of expression manifested in the Woodstock-’70s period and the emergence of generations of artists such as Dylan, Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix, etc.
The music industry has been in a constant state of change and has developed rapidly over the last 30 years. The way it is acquired, perceived, used and even produced is completely different from the traditional cycle, which began with the purchase of vinyl, cassette or CD. The Internet has also completely changed this industry, and the dissemination of music is used in social media networks, YouTube and especially the Internet dedicated music platforms, such as SoundCloud, Mixcloud, Spotify, Deezer etc.
The pandemic year has brought substantial changes in revenue, with most of the festivals and concerts with huge profits. So, in the US, the ones that generated 232.1 million in the first six months of 2020 were vinyl records, which is a fact that has not been seen since 1986. However, the digital sector is and probably will remain a good dominate – 91% of music sales, of which 84.8% are provided by streaming platforms.
According to IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), the organisation representing the interests of the music industry, the music sector supports 2 million jobs and contributes 81.9 million jobs annually to the economies of 27 EU Member States and the UK.
In terms of the annual global music market profit report that the IFPI reports, in 2019, revenues increased to $20.2 million, while profits streaming services increased to $11.4 million.
In terms of music engagement, another report by the IFPI indicates that the majority of consumers (aged 16-64) spend 18 hours a week on music, approximately 2.6 hours per day, and 64% of them actively access streaming platforms. Copyright remains an issue facing the music industry – 27% of consumers use unlicensed methods to listen to or obtain music while 23% use illegal streaming services via piracy.
So the music industry has been and is growing, and digitisation involves perhaps the most substantial change the music industry is undergoing, as well as other creative industries. As in the previous article, where we mentioned that fashion is undergoing major changes in terms of profit through e-commerce, digitisation and in the case of music, through streaming platforms that consumers can access at any time, is also bringing huge profits to this creative industry. Also the boom suffered by vinyl’s resurgence may suggest a paradox – consumers being mostly the same. Online streaming offers convenience and unlimited access, while buying vinyl represents more of an experience.
#TransylvanianMoviePreneurs is an entrepreneurial education project in the field of the Creative and Cultural Industries.
The promoters of this project are Civitas Foundation for Civil Society, 23 FILM and PROJECTS – Iceland.
The project is funded by EEA Grants 2014-2021, under the RO-Culture Programme of the
Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit (UMP).
