BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

In Business

Factual: Money

Series about the world of work from vast corporations to modest volunteers

Series of programmes about the whole world of work, public and private, from vast corporations to modest volunteers

In Business: The Music Industry

Factual

The Music Industry

02/01/2014

BBC Radio 4 - In Business, The Music Industry

How can musicians make money in an industry that has changed so much in the past decade?

Peter Day investigates how much the music industry has changed in the past decade and asks how businesses, and musicians, have had to adapt as a result.

It has been long established that the music industry has changed irrevocably over the past decade, with the internet disrupting the status quo as it has many other sectors. But the story has moved on from an industry dying from dwindling record sales. 

The traditional way of releasing your record has changed thanks to new publishing companies, companies that gather music statistics and the streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer. Now these companies are disrupting the industry once again. Peter Day speaks with the key businesses involved such as Spotify and Musicmetric and the traditional, established players such as Sony Music. 

Yet streaming services have also caused controversy because their payments to musicians are seemingly minuscule. Radiohead's lead singer Thom Yorke has battled against Spotify, calling it the 'last fart of a dying corpse' ; how can musicians make money now? Peter hears from a band just starting out, Yossarian, to Moby who has sold millions of records and singer songwriter Billy Bragg. We compare how much musicians receive from different sources of revenue.

But others see the streaming services as saviours and the future of the music industry. Is the problem of small returns from songs streamed actually a clash between a new way of listening to music and the traditional way the industry has been run? Sony Music explain how they are writing their record deals with musicians and that they are thinking about changing this for the new digital age.

Producer: Charlotte Pritchard.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

In Business

The Music Industry

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4