Soul Jazz Records - Case Study

Soul Jazz Records is a British record label. The label started in the 1990s, releasing compilation albums of predominantly black music, including reggae, soul, ska, dub and jazz. The label has since expanded its range and had released compilations of post-punk, electronica and world music, as well as a number of artist studio albums and singles.

GENRE:
Artist and genre focused > specialisms in sub-genre
-Brit pop
-reggae
-punk
-dance
-latin
-japanese noise
-mix house
-future dub
ALL ELECTRIC AND DIVERSE
-often deal with non-mainstream and non-commercial artists> several niche audiences
Underground tag association

Strategies:
Merchandising -clothing, accessories> tapping into fashion to create brand/label IMAGE

Advertising
-gigs (free!)> active audience> that want to go to gigs
-physical products> LP' s (vinyls)> CD's are given priority over Mp3
Turning obsolete format into collectable items "retro branding" > e.g home pages use album cover art

Form of radio> internet based> potential wider audience> wide broadcasting (global!)
News letter subscription> free> mailing list (electronic)> cost effective> no cost implication for subscribers


AUDIENCE:
1970's generation retro
-Depends on each sub-genre, separate
-audience for each sub-genre
-exclusive and niche
-presented as "cool" with a specific identity

RELATIONSHIP WITH MAINSTREAM:
-very independent of mainstream
-several, smaller niche audiences
-own brand identity
-use strategies that appear to:
-personalize
-use communication as a key form of marketing

Definitions

Convergance
This occurs when when multiple items and products come together to form one product with the advantages of them all (e.g. no longer is multiple products required to play movies, it can all be done on a laptop). This is also the growing interactive use in film industry which enables people to share media easier. Basically any form of digital media can be accessed by one medium such as a phone.

Independant
When media is created, edited, produced, distributed and or marketed by a single individual or group without the use of big named labels or producers. These are Indie artists.

Download
The act of downloading (copying) a media file for ones own consumption whether legal or illegal through a computer and file service (utorrent or mediafire).

File Sharing
This is the public or private sharing of media often through peer to peer services, this is in respect to digital media and its consumption.

Copyright
This is basically an exclusive legal right given to an individual or organisation that allows only them to produce or distribute the product and if broken by another individual legal action can occur.

The Music Industry
Any company that produces, markets, exhibits or distributes music is part of this industry. Essentially the groups, companies and individuals that create and sell music to earn money. Composed of the various sectors of marketing and distribution.

Synergy
The interaction and co-operation between two agents to result in a greater effect than if they worked independently This is cost effective and beneficial for both agents.

Conventions
This is the traditions of society or how the social norm dictates how one should go about for example acquiring and consuming media (conventions show that purchasing of hard back physically media was eventually replaced with the less conventional digital media at the time).

Consumption
This is the purchasing and use of goods in relation to demand and global economics, the methods in which the media can be enjoyed and how they are used.

Production
The methods and actions involved in manipulating the raw inputs (in this case, the song, movie or music video) and through edits and eventually making a media text based on the public demand for it (i.e prodcing a single for press release).

Horizontal and Vertical Integration
Vertical Integration is the process by which a media companies acquires another in a different stage in the production and distribution process. Such as the methods and actions of apple, as the hardware is not typically manufactured by apple vertical integration occurred between Foxconn and Pegatron.. Horizontal integration is the acquisition of business activities in similar or different media industries, usually through partnership or such (merging). A basic example would be of a media company owning a radio station, newspaper, magazine company, book firm and television channel.

Hardware
The physical components contained within the piece of equipment in question such as a computer, these can be added or removed to upgrade various elements of the equipment. This is opposed to software contained on the Personal Computer or installed onto the equipment. This is the physical component used to create, market or produce media text.

Demographics and Physchographics
This is measurable characteristics of a subject audience such as age, gender, race, income, religion etc. As opposed to psycho-graphics which is a more sophisticated defined form of demographics relating to attitudes held by the audience, values and ideology views.

The Big 3
This is the term given to the three most prominent companies in any industry. In the music industry it is UMG, SONY and WMG.

Distribution and Marketing
The idea of initially marketing (the ways in which the media text is sold to the audience) the media (i.e posters, adverts, interviews, trailers etc.) and then making the media available for the consumers to view in a multitude of platforms (i.e cinema viewing, DVD release, digital release, samples etc.) Distributors (who go through the industrial process of creating the media) attempt to make the media as available to the audience as possible and tend to release the media at peak times (etc horror movies at Halloween). The marketers attempt to make the media known to the audience before hand. There is both viral (reproducing word of mouth via YouTube) and Guerilla marketing (low cost method aimed at creating a "buzz" around a film.

Subsidiary
A company owned by a parent company (essentially a secondary company, one that is controlled by another company).

Independent research on changes in production in the music industry in the last 10 years

The music industry has changed in the last 10 years in a way that no one would've expected. The way in which the artist creates their music, how it is distributed and also how it is bought by the consumer. The digital age has made music a completely non tangible concept with the almost abolishment of CDs. When creating music artist would've needed a producer, record deal, an already present fan base and a recording studio slot, with the introduction of digital technology and social networking, an artist can create a complete album using just their smartphone. They can record their music using apps such as SoundCloud. They can build a fan base with twitter, Facebook, etc. and have their record available for purchase on iTunes. It is true that musicians these days have it much easier than they did 10 years ago. Not only is the development of music easier for artists, the distribution of the songs isn't how it used to be. Nowadays with the use of social networks, letting people hear their music is much easier. Of course, from the point of view this is a major advantage but, the drawback of this much easier music creation and consumption is that very mediocre artists and singers are given the same opportunity and create very mediocre music, this dilutes the real music people want to hear and makes it harder for fans to hear the bands they want to hear.

iTunes, Napster, LimeWire and YouTube downloader are all ways of downloading music both legally and illegally. For years music has progressed and is now a key part of peoples lives. Many artists in the music industry have said that the main reason they make music, is to make people aware of their art, and that the money is just an exciting extra. I agree with this and I believe that although downloading free music is illegal, the music industry would not be able to survive without it. When people download a song either legitimately or illegally they are going to share this music. This creates a larger fan base and greater recognition for the artist, therefore increasing numbers of people that would go out and buy a ticket to their concert. Personally I buy music from both the internet and high street stores, but it seems impractical that to have a keen interest in music it could prove very costly. It is a naive way of thinking to believe that someone has never illegally downloaded a song. I think that our generation, in the 21st century, are very fortunate. There are so many ways to get hold of music through TV, radio, youtube videos, iTunes and the increasingly outdated high street store. We have the capability to diverge into different genres and styles of music and to widen our understanding of other countries' cultures, beliefs and other peoples ways of thinking. In comparison to the 20th century, this century that has lasted only twelve years has progressed in a way like never before. As well as technology, music has matured and conformed to deal with the different way we live today.

This sudden change in creating and consuming music has come in stages, the first was people using and listening to CDs. These were popular as companies started to introduce portable CD players and portable Hi-Fis, the drawback of these was that, to change what they are listening to they would need to take the CD with them and replace the one that was in the device. Once computers became very popular and began to be portable people started to rip the music from their CDs onto their computers. This created the mp3 age, these mp3 files began to be available for download on the internet. Mp3 players were introduced to the market, these proved very popular, instead of people bringing their CDs with them they just brought their mp3 players which had all of the music on their CDs and more. As the years went on and technology developed mp3 players and phone began to become independent from the computer and had the capability to download their own music by connecting to the internet themselves.