The music industry is a range of music-related businesses and organizations that record, produce, publish, distribute and market recorded music. This process helps the promotions of live performances. The music industry is organized by various elements that include musicians, composers, songwriters, publishers, producers, record manufacturers, labels, and distributors. In addition, the music industry is well structured with musical ensembles, singers, performers, artists and repertory (A&R), band managers, tour promoters, booking agencies and tour managers.

Therefore, the music industry corresponds to the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC). This includes sound recording and music publishing activities. The ISIC economic activities are a United Nations System that classifies economic data and describes their system in the following terms:

“Wide use has been made of ISIC, both nationally and internationally, in classifying data according to kind of economic activity in the fields of production, employment, gross domestic product and other statistical areas. ISIC is a basic tool for studying economic phenomena, fostering international comparability of data, providing guidance for the development of national classifications and for promoting the development of sound national statistical systems.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Industrial_Classification)

First, sub-industries in the music industry comes from a number of different ISIC that include sound recording, publishing, programming and broadcasting activities, music training, manufacturing and retail sales.

Second, other sub-industries are copyright collectives and performing rights organizations. The copyright collective collects royalty payments for copyright holders through agreements or by copyright law. Performing rights organizations (PROs), established in France in 1851, provided intermediary functions in collecting royalty between copyright holders and others who used copyrighted works publicly. Then the PROs were introduced to Italy in 1882 and ASCAP in the USA in 1914. Next, Germany was introduced in 1915 and finally BMI in the USA in 1944. The United Kingdom was the first to protect musical compositions with the PROs implementing the Copyright Act of 1842. In the meanwhile, the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society was founded in 1924.

However, the first printings of music in 1465 were that of liturgical chants. It was the 1800s that sheet music publishers were dominated and publishing firms became a mass production and distribution of songs in New York City. This mass production is known as Tin Pan Alley, which is a district, associated with musicians, composers, and publishers of popular music.

In fact, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph primarily for music in 1877 and then novelty of mechanically reproduced music introduced the nation in the 1890s. He controlled his wax cylinder playback technology and licensed it to Columbia Phonograph Company.

Third, The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) founded in 1919 began to market consumer friendly radio. In the 1920s, the United States had over one million sets where radio raised concerns among copyright holders because broadcasters were selling airtime. As radio industries continued to increase, recording artists demanded compensation for broadcast of their material through ASCAP.

Then during the Great Depression record sales decreased from 150 million in 1929 to ten million in 1933 where businesses failed and ASCAP overlooked royalty collection for published music and compensation for radio broadcasts. BMI was offered stations in 1941 for its collection of music that had not been accepted by ASCAP. At this time, another wave of decentralization within the industry gained access to airwaves and recording studios that opened the door for African American styles to be the force behind the industry’s postwar expansion. Nevertheless, the initial patent restriction ended in 1917 and African American and southern white vernacular artists introduced country, folk, blues and jazz into the industry.

Next, tape recording, long-playing (LP) record, and the rise of rock and roll were three developments that transformed the music industry during the postwar.

Finally, stereo was introduced in the late 1950s and hundreds of independent labels entered the industry promoting regional styles. Industry profits were shown in the 1960s when LP dominated the industry’s profits and major labels perfected promotional strategies of well-advertised albums, tours and airplay; especially rock and roll music.

In conclusion, the twentieth century ended as much as it began with copyright repercussions of the digital revolution. The digital revolution of the twenty-first century changed the music industry with many opportunities for independent artist and labels.