Week 11

The music industry consists of recording companies, music technology, press, merchandising, licensing, and retail.  Its main focus is making money.  On one hand, this could mean that the music audience is created by the industry since the industry, in a sense, controls artists.  This is debatable, but artists are definitely affected by the industry.  They are discouraged from taking creative risks and making innovative music.  They rely on the industry to reach their audience and therefore must obey its capitalist ways.

On the other hand, perhaps the industry is created by the audience.  It seems that successful artists may gain the authority to dictate terms to the music company they work for.  Also, many artists prove to rise above the homogenous products that the industry prefers.  Individual audience members tend to accept and reject music on their personal preferences.  They do not always agree with what the music industry puts out.