Distribution Methods

Radio

Radio was the first way the music industry were able to distribute music to a mass market and due to technological advancements in the early 1900's radios became available on a large scale and were the hub of entertainment in many households. As audio playback machines where not easily accessible, the music industry would have used the radio as a starting point for mass media exposure.



Records

In 1930 RCA Victor launched the first commercially accessible record. The revolutionary discs had a rpm of 33 and were capable of long play playback system. The discs were made of plastic and had a diameter of 30cm. The plastic material had the advantage of less surface noise to previous counterparts and was far more durable. The discs allowed space for producers names and logos to be printed in the centre and is where the well known name record 'label' comes from today.

Until the 1950's various companies produced records that required different sized needles to play and had different RPMs. In the mid 1950's the record companies decided to agree on a common recording standard called RIAA equalisation.



Cassettes
The compact cassette often simply refereed to as a 'tape' is a magnetic tape sound recording format. This style of music distribution was massively used between the early 70's up until the late 90's along side the LP vinyl and compact disc (will be discussed next). While widely accessible and relatively cheap and simple, the audio cassette tape had several issues which home users and professional artists found annoying. Due to variances in tape speed on different players playback pitch was often too high or low and as cassette player speed was fixed by the producer this could not be amended easily. Finally different tape formulation and noise reduction schemes artificially boosted or cut high frequencies which was not always ideal for some consumers.


Compact disc (CD)

A compact disc or 'CD' is an optical disc used to store digital data. The CD became commercially available in October 1982 and not only was a break through in music technology but opened up the pathway for interactive CD-ROMs, rewritable CDs and digital video discs! The average CD has a digital memory of 700 mega bites which was previously unheard of and was a massive amount of storage, meaning the quality of music could be improved. Unlike the cassette the CD is still widely used today and its estimated that by 2007, 200 billion CDs had been sold worldwide. Although still commonly used on a mass basis, the CD is slowly being replaced with digital downloads from online. However this appears more common in the music industry than in others.



Digital download

Consumers are able to transfer a song/s from an online interface onto a local computer. This of course has become far more popular as Internet has developed over recent years and broadband gives users quick Internet connectivity and browsing. digital downloads of course have advantages such as packaging costs being eradicated and opening up new slots in the market. However the rising popularity of digital download does have its disadvantages. For example not all of the downloads available are provided by the producers of the music, meaning the a loss in revenue would take place. As previously distribution of music was only really provided by the record labels responsible for the production illegal downloads mean that although record labels have broadened their market share by offering a different sales tactic, the truth is, pirate copies will always be a large loss in revenue for the music industry.



Youtube

Youtube is just one example of a video sharing website but is by far the most famous. The free online sharing site makes music producers able to promote their music for free, and with less risk of copyright as consumers will only have access to the music if they are on the website. The idea behind this is similar to television promotion on music channels. The music producers either make and promote videos for consumers to watch, or simply upload the song with a still picture in the background to act almost as a sample and make viewers want to purchase the music through other channels of distribution. The advantage youtube and other video sharing site have over TV is that it is in effect music on demand, meaning target audiences can search and access specific music any time, anywhere instead of waiting and watching on the TV.



Modern Day Methods
Record labels today use a combination of the more recent distribution methods. A combination of compact discs, digital download as well of course promoting music through online video sharing sites are the most commonly used contemporary methods. However radio is still a huge marketing platform and is still heavily used almost 80 years after it became a common household appliance. Not only is radio the only 'older' distribution method record producers use to broaden and target their markets, as many still do press vinyl records and sell them to act more as quirky collector's items rather than a main audio format. The cassette however has been almost eradicated from mass music production as the CD or compact disc can match and outdo everything the audio cassette has to offer. Also as seen below, the most recognised MP3 player all over the world. The company sold 807,000 iPods during the quarter, a 909% rise on the same period a year ago. (2004)