Music distribution

Music distribution is the process by which music gets from performing artists to consumers and listeners. This process began with the printing of song sheets of popular tunes. In the twentieth century, distribution became a major industry involving artists, record labels, distribution companies, and retail outlets. The internet revolution of the 1990s and beyond forever changed the face of music distribution, allowing music to be sold, bought, and traded digitally. This sudden shift created both tremendous benefits and liabilities for distributors and other members of the music industry. In the 2020s, most music sales take place online, although physical media—such as CDs and vinyl—remain popular with some fans.

History

Even before music could be recorded and replayed with technological devices, companies produced song sheets and song books containing musical notations. By following these notations, people could play and sing the tunes themselves. This was the primary means of reproducing and distributing music for hundreds of years until technology allowed people to replay music without having to perform it.

In the late nineteenth century, inventions such as the phonograph allowed music to be recorded and replayed. In turn, the music could be mass-produced and distributed across the world. Consumers could purchase a recording and play it on machines in their homes with ease. Early recordings were on cylindrical tubes. These were replaced by large flat discs known as records. Records contain grooves with tiny peaks and valleys that transmit sound information when a highly sensitive needle runs over them.

Records allowed both vocal and instrumental music, along with other audio information, to be captured and listened to by anyone with a compatible player. Record technology was a scientific breakthrough as well as an economic boom, leading to the rise of the first major record companies such as the Victor Talking Machine Company, the Columbia Phonograph Company, and the Thomas Edison Company.

By the 1920s, these early companies’ strong grasp on the fledgling recording industry weakened and a wide variety of new recording and distributing companies, known as independent labels, emerged. Just as the record industry was blossoming, the emergence of radio technology added a new dimension to the distribution of music. Musical artists now had an entirely new medium by which to broadcast their work directly into listeners’ homes, and commercial radio rapidly became a popular form of entertainment. However, most musicians continued to work through record labels, which handled the technical, logistical, and financial side of recording and transmitting the music.

An array of new recording labels, large and small, emerged in the coming decades. A few of the most prominent of these included Warner Brothers, RCA Victor, Polygram, and CBS. These companies oversaw the development of music distribution into the modern era and introduced countless new artists and musical forms to the public. New technologies such as 8-tracks, cassettes, and then compact discs offered more efficient means of capturing and replaying music. With millions of consumers owning music-playing devices, music distribution became a major worldwide industry.

The end of the twentieth century brought many changes to the music distribution industry. Major labels merged to form increasingly large companies. Even more important, the rise of internet technology opened up an unprecedented new venue for music distribution. Companies and artists rushed to take their work and brands online and to find new ways to distribute their product digitally.

At the same time, the internet also brought a host of challenges to the industry. Various sites and programs for file-sharing let people easily distribute digital audio files, along with any other sort of digital information. This represented a new level of transactions, allowing people to get music almost instantly after its release without having to visit a record store, call a radio station, or wait for a disc in the mail.

It made the process so easy, in fact, that many people used it in unauthorized ways. File traders swapped, shared, or even sold music files digitally without permission. This phenomenon, known as digital piracy, presented an enormous challenge to record labels and other music distributors. Unauthorized and illegal trading proved a major detriment to legitimate sales, eating into profits and bringing financial concerns to many companies.

By the twenty-first century, the online phenomenon had changed the way people accessed and listened to music. Social media and video-sharing sites such as YouTube allowed people to spread music and other information, sometimes without the owners’ authorization. At the same time, the new forms of media allowed many musicians and other creators to promote and distribute their own work.

Record labels were left to adapt to situations in which they no longer held exclusive control over the music distribution process, and the radio broadcasting industry was also forced to adapt to compete with new online platforms. Meanwhile, musicians and distributors found they had more options, as well as a host of new questions and challenges, in the process of offering their work to listeners.

Overview

In its most general sense, music distribution is the complex process by which the music industry offers recorded music to listeners and consumers. In the twenty-first century, consumers may find and purchase music in many ways, including physically in stores, through mail-order sales, or digitally through downloading or streaming.

The process of music distribution begins with the creation of music by performers. After that, specialists may record the music, mass-produce recordings, and bring the recordings to various markets. Some of these specialists include promoters, producers, engineers, record labels, and agents. Their combined work makes music ready for distribution.

Like many facets of the music industry, music distribution operates mainly through contracts. Artists and their agents often sign contracts with record labels, which record and produce the music for a certain cut of the profits. The record labels arrange for the musical product, whether physical or digital, to be fully completed and made ready for consumption. At that time, distributors make deals with the record labels.

A typical deal might involve the distributor agreeing to sell the product and split the income with the record label, which will in turn pay the artist and others contributors. In some cases, distributors may arrange to fund the creation of the music product, on the understanding that the distributor will keep all income until it has recouped its investment.

Traditionally, distributors served as a conduit between record labels and the retail stores that would offer the music directly to consumers. These stores included shops that exclusively sell music products as well as department stores and any other outlets that offer music recordings. Retailers work out contracts with distributors to determine the allocation of income from the sale of their products. Some retailers purchase products outright, then sell them and keep the profits. Other retailers accept products on consignment, meaning they do not pay the distributor unless the products sell. If the products sell, the retailer pays the distributor an agreed-upon percentage of the sales price.

This traditional distribution process changed dramatically around the beginning of the twenty-first century with the proliferation of internet technologies and the rise of music streaming. The ability to download music almost instantly presented enormous benefits as well as equally significant liabilities for the distribution of music.

A vast proportion of music sales shifted into online marketplaces. There, consumers could search for, sample, and purchase musical tracks and albums from websites and apps such as Amazon and iTunes. Consumers benefited from near-instantaneous delivery of their product. Many also benefited from their ability to research music types, write or read reviews, access samples of music, or use other online capabilities that helped inform them about available products. In the 2010s, subscription services such as Spotify and Pandora created new platforms by which consumers could discover and access music, and new profit sources for the music industry as it reeled in the face of a major overhaul.

Distributors and the music industry as a whole faced many challenges during this time. One of the main concerns was the illegal downloading of audio files. File-sharing programs such as Napster allowed users to download music tracks and albums for free. This online piracy circumvented the financial business of distribution, meaning that no one—including the distributors, record labels, and the artists themselves—received financial compensation for their work. File-sharing took a toll on the legal sale of music for several years until investigations and crackdowns greatly reduced the practice.

At the same time, the sharp rise of legal digital purchases caused a jarring restructuring of traditional distribution methods. In-store sales of physical media, such as cassettes and CDs, plummeted in the 2000s and 2010s. Retailers had to acclimate to this loss of business and revenue by focusing on their online sales platforms or deemphasizing music sales entirely. All of these changes brought logistical challenges to music distributors, who were charged with providing both physical and digital media at the right times and right amounts.

The online world also provided an unprecedented angle for musicians. Many musicians have chosen to bypass the traditional procedure of reaching audiences and consumers through record labels and traditional distributors. These artists may take to social media or legal file-sharing sites such as YouTube or TikTok to promote themselves or distribute their own work. Many musicians have found success through self-distribution of their work, managing to reach large audiences and reap significant profits without the help of intermediaries.

Despite the digital revolution, a small but significant segment of music fans still prefer physical media, particularly vinyl records, and record collecting remains a very popular hobby. Many musicians arrange for the limited release of their work on vinyl for these fans, and many of these releases have become valuable collector’s items.

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