Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Monday, 7 March 2011

Tescos and the industry

Few quick links here on how Tescos has challenged the traditional music retail business, pushing and squeezing the record labels...
Jan 2004: Report on a court case to stop online retailers undercutting set UK prices through 'parallel importing' compares the action to a case against Tesco's importing of jeans.
30th March 2008: They try to change the fees paid by retailers to record companies. This is a gr8 article for info on how the biz works
22nd Feb 2010: launch own record label, signing Simply Red
21st Oct 2010: In a busy year for 'Scos, they enter a row with Warner Bros, threatening to de-stock all their releases as they try to strong-arm the industry giant into giving them more favourable terms (The S*n headline: Tescos at War-ner with record label)
Dec 2010: They also signed Nadine Coyle of Girls Aloud...but she flopped
7th March 2010: As reported on BBC Radio 5 Live's 'Drive' programme at 6.45pm, Tescos is now seeking to reverse the traditional model of retailers paying £7 or £8 upfront for albums...instead paying just 50p! The move will strongly reinforce the power of the majors and devestate many Indies, and threaten small-scale music retailers too. See Musicweek, FT.com, or YTWHW.com for more.

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