The music industry, and its change

The music industry sells compositions, recordings and performances of music to the public. Music is produced and sold by two groups; the act and the organizations that operate within the industry.
In the late 19th century, the industry was mainly controlled by publishers of sheet music; (sheet music is a hand-written piece of music on a hard copy of paper that uses music notes to display the music). Technology gradually improved and music was moved to audio in the 20th/21st century; this was due to Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph which assisted the industry in recording music and allowing them to play music via radio (the only real way the public you could listen to new music).
The record industry then replaced sheet music publishers as the major music distributors/owners. Record labels were then introduced such a giants Columbia Records. More and more labels were created (as well as some not doing to well and folding), but in the 1980s the "big 6" as they were called were formed; EMI, Song, BMG, PolyGram, WEA and Universal.

As we entered the 21st century technology was improving continously. Consumers were spending less and less money on CDs, Vinyls, cassettes and digital downloads, they eventually dropped 25% world wide; this was due to the large number of illegal downloads. Illegal downloading became a 21st century epidemic, everybody seemed to be getting involved. Websites were being created with a 'front' which involved selling a product in order to make the website legal, but allowing music sharing for free. Napster was the leading site for illegal downloads, in 2001 Napster was shut down, but this was clear to not be the end of illegal downloading as the music industry soon found out as one website closes down, 2 websites open. This was a great issue for the music industry as a whole, and in some cases caused devastating effects to income, therefore having a knock on effect to the artist/bands, causing some outrage from some artist.

iTunes store was open in 2003 and lowered the rate of illegal downloads due to easy access of music. Digital sales improved but still to this day have not recovered the loss due to illegal downloads.

In 2010, a study shows that MNCs (Multi National Companies) such as Wal-Mart and Best-Buy retail more music than stores that just sell music. Due to the massive decline in the sales of music, artists these days rely on live performances and merchandise to bring in the majority of their money; this has made artists more dependent on labels and has created a market for record labels. It has also led to the mass commercialization of the music industry nowadays and the ‘Americanization’ or many artists ideology.
This change in the industry has given consumers a wider variety of choice and at an extremely low price.

Universal account for 25% of the industry, closely followed by Sony at 21%, Warner and EMI also have large shares. The rest of the market falls down to independent record labels.