Analysis Of The Music Industry

Music may be defined romantically as `the food of love' (Shakespeare) or more prosaically as `sound with particular characteristics' (Wikipedia), but it is undeniably a `vibrant artform' (Arts Council England) and one which touches more people, in more ways, than any other art form.
In commercial terms, music certainly generates a higher market value than the other arts, although a comprehensive market size for music in all its manifestations is impossible to calculate. Key Note has put a value of £3.03bn on consumer spending on music in 2005, derived from three sectors: recorded music (which accounts for the bulk of the market), live music and musical instruments. However, data for other related markets are included, such as equipment for home listening and viewing.
Recorded music dominates, but this large market is on the cusp of a technological revolution that will eventually transform the way the majority of people buy music. In 2005, most music was bought as compact disc (CD) albums — the `single', vinyl and cassette having already become minor sectors — but `legal downloading', although still in its infancy, is accelerating rapidly. Key Note forecasts that, by 2010, legal downloading will account for more than a third of consumer spending on recorded music, although the time-lag while older consumers get used to the new technology will mean that CDs will remain the main format for years to come.
Recent growth in recorded products has also come from music on digital versatile disc (DVD), which are rapidly replacing videocassettes, and this marks a shift towards a more `visual' appreciation of music and its performers. Young consumers are spending more time accessing music through their computers or televisions, having been brought up on MTV and other music channels in the new digital media environment of multi-channel television and radio. Although radio is now peripheral to television in terms of media consumption, the fact remains that music dominates...