INDUSTRY VINYL Kid rock: Teen record label owner

So...imagine you got a little bored after your AS year, you needed a wee side project, something to gear you up for your A2 work in the music industry. Perhaps you thought you'd set up a record label, specialising in vinyl?!

Sound crazy? Not to this 17 year-old from Detroit...

Article link below the line

INDUSTRY US + UK labels row with YouTube, vinyl bigger than streaming

Following on from a recent BPI (UK music industry body) report comes an RIAA (USA equivalent) report making very similar arguments: YouTube is not paying enough, and streams are worth less in total than vinyl sales despite the vastly different numbers involved.

Numbers are what you get plenty of here: clear, precise, specific evidence you can use to show you've got a firm grip on the evolving nature of a digitally disrupted industry.

ARTICLE: YouTube and music labels clash again over 'meagre' artist royalties.

INDUSTRY HD Vinyl within 3 years

Vinyl sales are already worth more than all music streaming, with a 30% rise in 2015. Only the slow, heavily polluting manufacturing process, and a lack of factory capacity, can hold it back - and once HD Vinyl hits both problems are gone...

See: digitalmusicnews article.

INDUSTRY Why major acts aren't releasing new albums

Cinderella are a bluesy glam metal band who had huge 90s hit albums and retain a large live following. Here's their bass player explaining why it's so long since they released new material ... and he was speaking back in 2011, when the economics were more favourable than they are now!

You could argue that there's a false sense of entitlement here, but this is how many acts are viewing the logistics of recording, mixing and distributing new material

In a 2011 interview SCTimes.com, Eric explained why there was little incentive for CINDERELLA to make a new studio record. He said: "In the musical climate these days and the way we like to do things, it's not really worth doing it anymore. Our last record cost $1.2 million to make and the cheapest record we've ever made was $400,000. You can't do that these days because no one even sells $400,000 worth of records, CDs or downloads. Everything's changed. Everyone makes records in their bedrooms basically for next to nothing and in my opinion, most of them sound like it. That's not what we're about."

SOURCE: Blabbermouth.

REPRESENTATION Are women still male gaze others?

There has been a lot of discussion about the status of women in the music industry lately (echoed with a film industry debate too), with allegations swirling not just of secondary status but abuse too.

Although she was cruelly, publicly put down by Miley Cyrus (with cracks at the mental health of a woman who has suffered long term depression and a recent breakdown), Sinead O'Connor's plea for Cyrus to resist the sexploitation of male managers, executives and video directors still rings very true.

You can easily find lots of articles, recent and historic (look at Tina Turner or any number of 60s girl bands) to help add a deeper perspective to your own consideration of representations; how your media language choices signify and position various social groups.

Here's an excerpt from this pull no punches article:

It’s wearying if only because the stories – and the inevitable clamor that accompanies them – are generated at a constant churn, which makes them feel horrifyingly normal. Anyone who aspires to be a “woman in rock” (or pop) is only able to inhabit that scene as an “other”. They exist in a place where they’re only seen as women, as being to be looked at first, and as such can be relegated to subordinate status at any moment.

Sexism on repeat: how the music industry can break the cycle.