The New Music Industry

The article I read was called, "Building International Empires of Sound: Concentrations of Power and Property in the Global Music Market." The article's purpose was to describe how the power of record labels have shifted throughout the past century. The author, Jack Bishop, discusses in detail how record labels, publishing companies, distribution companies, and manufacturing companies have merged together through acquisitions and buy outs to create the four major labels; Universal, Sony/BMG, Warner, and EMI. Instead of taking a side on the current side of the industry and the facts that have lead to its unstable state, Bishop has taken a historical perspective on the situation. He does however, delve into the ethical dilemmas that come from a media conglomerate's influence over culture as well as national and international law pertaining to the music industry and copyrights. Bishop conducts a study on the current state of the industry after the 2005 finalization of the merger between the two giants, Sony and BMG.