<p>Titel: Into tomorrow – Constructing scenarios for the record industry in the 21-century.Number of Pages: 54 (55 including enclosures)Author: Erik G AgebergTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring semester 2009University: Division of Media and Communication studies, Department ofinformation science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The aim of this paper is to, through scenario planning methodology,present recommendations in order for record companies to be competitive in the nearfuture. In order to achieve this goal three question where asked. (1) What are the mostcentral problems of the record industry? (2) How can these problems affect the futurein the industry? (3) In what way can record companies’ work to avoid theseproblems? The paper focuses on the Swedish market partly because of the giventimeframe but also because of Sweden’s position in that of file sharing as well astechnological advances. It is also assumed in this paper that the future of music saleswill be concentrated to the Internet.Material/Method: The chosen method for this paper was scenario planning. Anextensive literature study was complemented with interviews of key players involvedin content consumption over the Internet.Main results: A fundamental issue for the future of the music industry is that oflegislation. The outcome of the record industry’s future is almost exclusivelydependent on the way, which the legislation takes. A stricter legislation, whichincludes violations of citizens’ personal integrity, may backfire and result in politicalpirate parties’ becoming members of parliaments. This may in turn result in that theintellectual property laws of the nineteenth century are removed. Suing privatepersons and trackers can result in record companies alienating an entire generation ofmusic consumers. Record companies attempts to retain music as a product may proveto be futile within time, but they can absolutely prolong the period in which it is aproduct. It is nevertheless, not entirely negative for music to become a service. Bybeing a service music can more easily be attached to another service, like an Internetsubscription, or an experience.</p>

Titel: Into tomorrow – Constructing scenarios for the record industry in the 21-century.Number of Pages: 54 (55 including enclosures)Author: Erik G AgebergTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring semester 2009University: Division of Media and Communication studies, Department ofinformation science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The aim of this paper is to, through scenario planning methodology,present recommendations in order for record companies to be competitive in the nearfuture. In order to achieve this goal three question where asked. (1) What are the mostcentral problems of the record industry? (2) How can these problems affect the futurein the industry? (3) In what way can record companies’ work to avoid theseproblems? The paper focuses on the Swedish market partly because of the giventimeframe but also because of Sweden’s position in that of file sharing as well astechnological advances. It is also assumed in this paper that the future of music saleswill be concentrated to the Internet.Material/Method: The chosen method for this paper was scenario planning. Anextensive literature study was complemented with interviews of key players involvedin content consumption over the Internet.Main results: A fundamental issue for the future of the music industry is that oflegislation. The outcome of the record industry’s future is almost exclusivelydependent on the way, which the legislation takes. A stricter legislation, whichincludes violations of citizens’ personal integrity, may backfire and result in politicalpirate parties’ becoming members of parliaments. This may in turn result in that theintellectual property laws of the nineteenth century are removed. Suing privatepersons and trackers can result in record companies alienating an entire generation ofmusic consumers. Record companies attempts to retain music as a product may proveto be futile within time, but they can absolutely prolong the period in which it is aproduct. It is nevertheless, not entirely negative for music to become a service. Bybeing a service music can more easily be attached to another service, like an Internetsubscription, or an experience.

This thesis analyses the factors influencing the purchase of vinyl records by the members of generation Y in Sweden. Two interviews with local stores owners as well as a survey were perfomed in this regard.

<p><strong>Bakgrund:</strong> Musikindustrin har upplevt omvälvande förändringar det senaste decenniet, där skivbolagen har tappat 50 % av sin försäljning sedan år 2000. Minskningen beror till stor del på det teknologiska paradigmskifte som skett i och med digitaliseringens intåg i musikindustrin, ett intåg som förändrat marknadsvillkoren för berörda parter.</p><p><strong>Syfte: </strong>Syftet är att förstå hur marknadsledande företag påverkas och handlar under teknologiska paradigmskiften, med utgångspunkt från skivbolagsindustrin. Vidare ämnar vi undersöka vad skivbolagen har haft för roll inom musikindustrin och hur den ser ut i dag efter digitaliseringens intåg.</p><p><strong>Metod:</strong> Uppsatsen är baserad på fyra intervjuer samt en e-postkorrenspondens med personer som har upplevt industrins utveckling de senaste åren. Som komplement till intervjuerna används sekundärdata.</p><p><strong>Resultat:</strong> Skivbolagen upplevde svårigheter i och med det teknologiska paradigmskifte som digitaliseringen stod för. Skivbolagen har efter ett defensivt beteende där de motverkat förändringen börjat arbeta för att skapa affärsmodeller som är applicerbara på den digitala marknaden. Studien visar även att skivbolagen har en viktig roll i musikindustrin, då de fungerar som en samordnare för de många funktioner som är involverade i en musikproduktion.</p> / <p><strong>Background: </strong>Music industry has experienced substantial change in the last decade, in which record companies have lost 50% of its sales since the year 2000. The decrease is largely due to the technological paradigm shift that has taken place with the digitalization of the music industry. These changes have changed market conditions for existing companies.</p><p><strong>Aim:</strong> The aim of this study is to understand how market leading companies affects from and act during changes in technological paradigms with a focus on the record industry. Furthermore we will investigate the record companies’ role in the market and what their role is today after the digitalization of the market.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> This essay is based on four interviews and one e-mail correspondence with people who have experienced the development of industry in the last decade. As complement secondary data has been used.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> Record companies suffered difficulties due to the technological change of paradigm which was the result of digitalization. After defensive behavior the companies started to create new business models applicable on the digital market. This study also shows that record companies do have an important role in music industry as whole, as they work as a coordinator to the many functions involved in a music production.</p>

Bakgrund: Musikindustrin har upplevt omvälvande förändringar det senaste decenniet, där skivbolagen har tappat 50 % av sin försäljning sedan år 2000. Minskningen beror till stor del på det teknologiska paradigmskifte som skett i och med digitaliseringens intåg i musikindustrin, ett intåg som förändrat marknadsvillkoren för berörda parter. Syfte: Syftet är att förstå hur marknadsledande företag påverkas och handlar under teknologiska paradigmskiften, med utgångspunkt från skivbolagsindustrin. Vidare ämnar vi undersöka vad skivbolagen har haft för roll inom musikindustrin och hur den ser ut i dag efter digitaliseringens intåg. Metod: Uppsatsen är baserad på fyra intervjuer samt en e-postkorrenspondens med personer som har upplevt industrins utveckling de senaste åren. Som komplement till intervjuerna används sekundärdata. Resultat: Skivbolagen upplevde svårigheter i och med det teknologiska paradigmskifte som digitaliseringen stod för. Skivbolagen har efter ett defensivt beteende där de motverkat förändringen börjat arbeta för att skapa affärsmodeller som är applicerbara på den digitala marknaden. Studien visar även att skivbolagen har en viktig roll i musikindustrin, då de fungerar som en samordnare för de många funktioner som är involverade i en musikproduktion. / Background: Music industry has experienced substantial change in the last decade, in which record companies have lost 50% of its sales since the year 2000. The decrease is largely due to the technological paradigm shift that has taken place with the digitalization of the music industry. These changes have changed market conditions for existing companies. Aim: The aim of this study is to understand how market leading companies affects from and act during changes in technological paradigms with a focus on the record industry. Furthermore we will investigate the record companies’ role in the market and what their role is today after the digitalization of the market. Method: This essay is based on four interviews and one e-mail correspondence with people who have experienced the development of industry in the last decade. As complement secondary data has been used. Results: Record companies suffered difficulties due to the technological change of paradigm which was the result of digitalization. After defensive behavior the companies started to create new business models applicable on the digital market. This study also shows that record companies do have an important role in music industry as whole, as they work as a coordinator to the many functions involved in a music production.

The record industry has been around for just over 100 years and it’s an industry that mostly has been growing and growing ever since its inception. New technology has always pushed the industry forwards and helped it grow bigger and bigger with almost each year. But when the internet came in the early 2000’s it changed everything. It caused a stir in the industry when the music consumers now had the possibility to rip CD's, download music files illegally and share them with the world for free. In desperate actions to try to save the record labels from going bankrupt they did all in their power to fight the change. What eventually happened was that other actors came in and saved the business with services that embraced the change from a physical way of consuming music, to a new digital one.   This is a study of how that change has been perceived and affected the record labels and their ways of working. By using Paul Hirschs modell charting the organization of the pop music industry and the four processes that Tschmuck describes as the core activities of a record label, we’ve interviewed six record labels in the Stockholm area in an attempt to describe the new core activities and organization of the industry now that the digitization has changed the way the customers consume music.   Our findings show that the value added chain that Hirsch modelled has changed drastically, with several actors losing importance in it, while others actors has traded places. The core activities that Tschmuck described remains the same, but the ways they are executed has become more effective thanks to the new technology.

Music radio is the most listened to form of radio, and one of the least researched by academic ethnographers. This research project addresses industry structure and agency in an investigation into the relationship between music radio and the record industry in the UK, how that relationship works to produce music radio and to shape the production of popular music. The underlying context for this research is Peterson's production of culture perspective. The research is in three parts: a model of music radio production and consumption, an ethnographic investigation focusing on music radio programmers and record industry pluggers, and an ethnographic investigation into the use of specialist music radio programming by alternative pop and rock artists in Glasgow, Scotland. The research has four main conclusions: music radio continues to be central to the record industry's promotional strategy for new commercial recordings; music radio is increasing able to mediate the production practices of the popular music industry; that mediation is focused through the social relationship between music radio programmers and record industry pluggers; cultural practices of musicians are developed and mediated by consumption of specialist music radio, as they become part of specialist music radio.

La thèse analyse un document intitulé Record Labeling Hearing (RLH) (1985), qui reprend dans son intégralité une séance qui s’est tenue au Congrès des États-Unis à propos du contenu jugé problématique de certains albums de musique. Au cœur de cette séance, se retrouve le Parents Music Resource Centre (PMRC), un groupe de pression qui voit le jour en 1984. D’après le PMRC, les albums avec des paroles traitant de sexe, de violence, d’occulte, de drogues et d’alcool méritent l’autocollant du « Parental Advisory : Explicit Lyrics » afin d’avertir les parents des thématiques abordées. La séance réunit des sénateurs du Congrès américain, les membres du PMRC et des alliés de ces derniers, dont la National Parent/Teacher Association (NPTA), ainsi que des représentants de l’industrie de la musique et trois artistes. Nous verrons dans la thèse qu’en fait, c’est le heavy metal que le PMRC et ses alliés visaient lors du RLH et non par exemple certains contenus transversaux à divers types d’albums de musique. A cette époque, la sous-culture du heavy metal était encore en émergence et pour tout dire bien fragile. En 1985, elle était même menacée de fragmentation en raison de la popularité de certains de ses sous-genres. Or, en présentant le heavy metal comme une contre-culture, le RLH a aidé ce genre musical à se constituer en véritable sous-culture.

La thèse analyse un document intitulé Record Labeling Hearing (RLH) (1985), qui reprend dans son intégralité une séance qui s’est tenue au Congrès des États-Unis à propos du contenu jugé problématique de certains albums de musique. Au cœur de cette séance, se retrouve le Parents Music Resource Centre (PMRC), un groupe de pression qui voit le jour en 1984. D’après le PMRC, les albums avec des paroles traitant de sexe, de violence, d’occulte, de drogues et d’alcool méritent l’autocollant du « Parental Advisory : Explicit Lyrics » afin d’avertir les parents des thématiques abordées. La séance réunit des sénateurs du Congrès américain, les membres du PMRC et des alliés de ces derniers, dont la National Parent/Teacher Association (NPTA), ainsi que des représentants de l’industrie de la musique et trois artistes. Nous verrons dans la thèse qu’en fait, c’est le heavy metal que le PMRC et ses alliés visaient lors du RLH et non par exemple certains contenus transversaux à divers types d’albums de musique. A cette époque, la sous-culture du heavy metal était encore en émergence et pour tout dire bien fragile. En 1985, elle était même menacée de fragmentation en raison de la popularité de certains de ses sous-genres. Or, en présentant le heavy metal comme une contre-culture, le RLH a aidé ce genre musical à se constituer en véritable sous-culture.

Scholars from various disciplines have demonstrated that popular culture factored significantly in Cold War contestation. As a pervasive form of cultural content and unifying medium for baby boomers worldwide, pop music played an important part in the power struggle between the era’s two adversarial camps. Historical studies of the past thirty years have identified initiatives of cultural diplomacy, from radio broadcasting to live concert tours, as key to disseminating Western music in Eastern Bloc societies. This project explains how cultural commerce across the divide of the Iron Curtain familiarized millions of music fans in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with popular sounds from the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western democracies. Detailing a process that affected all Bloc states in similar ways, it seeks to enrich the scholarly discourse on the role of pop culture in the twentieth century’s defining ideological conflict. Through analysis of previously unavailable or inaccessible sources, the dissertation reconstructs the economic development of a communist culture industry and measures the commercial significance of Western commodities in one Eastern Bloc marketplace. Drawing on untapped archival files, it traces the evolution of Deutsche Schallplatten (German Records) from a small private firm into a flagship enterprise on the GDR’s cultural circuit. It illuminates how dependency on technology and resources from capitalist countries prompted East Germany’s managers to prioritize the westward export of classical recordings for the purpose of earning hard currencies. Based on oral histories of contemporary witnesses, it documents how the Amiga label through the parent company’s business ties to capitalist partners advanced the import of Western jazz, blues, rock, pop, and dance music to exhaust the purchasing power of the home audience. Empirically evaluating formerly classified production data for a total of 143 million records, it reveals how the state-owned monopolist engineered a de facto takeover of the domestic marketplace by American, British, and West German performers to achieve high profitability. The dissertation argues that intensifying Westernization of its walled-in music market exemplified the GDR’s decision to concede the Cold War battle over cultural preferences and political loyalties of its citizens out of economic necessity.