Podcasts, Music, and Movies
Hello, again creatives!
This week we’re briefly discussing three big culture-driving industries. There are a lot of moving parts to the podcast, music and film industry, so it’ll be a lot of fun to dissect them as the blog grows. These industries have a few things in common:
It all starts with creative people who have something to say, want to gather people around a subject or want to create an experience
There are studios involved that handle the recording and production of the project
Distribution is typically outsourced to mostly digital third-party platforms
This is largely why I lumped podcasts, music, and film in the same category (Play.) because structurally, the pieces in the industry function similarly. So let’s dive a little deeper into each industry.
The Podcast Industry
You could say that podcasts are an evolution of the radio show. The word “podcast” is a smash between “iPod” and “broadcast”. Podcasting actually predates the iPod, having been called “audio blogging” for a little while, but the catchy term ‘podcasting’ caught on after the iPod made audio blogs portable.
Some of the latest stats on the industry show that podcasting is here to stay for a while. Reportedly, 51% of the US population has listened to at least one podcast and 1 in 5 Americans listen to a podcast weekly. Comedy, educational and news podcasts are among the most popular podcasts out there.
The boom of podcasting can be credited to the growth of the internet and the accessibility of podcasting tools. While nearly anyone can create a podcast, it is a time-consuming endeavor.
You need a studio. You can build one at home or pay a studio service to use their facilities. If you opt to build an at-home studio, the equipment can quickly become costly, although there are ways to create one on a budget.
Then you’ll need to set up a podcast host, whether it be a website or a third-party platform. This will be where all of your podcast episodes will be stored and available for people to listen to.
For greater reach, you’ll want to connect with a distributor, which as of now mostly consists of streaming services.
If you want to be a podcaster full time you’ll need to seek sponsorship opportunities and/or accept advertisements in the podcast episodes. Building a brand, landing speaking engagements and dropshipping merchandise also help.
There have been a plethora of tools and resources that have cropped up to help aspiring podcasters get on their feet. Later posts will list and explain the best options and how these resources are shaping the industry itself.
The Music Industry
While podcasting began as an outlet driven by creatives, the music and film industries have always had creator-corporate struggles. This is because the creatives in the music and film industries don’t always own the rights to their work and if they are contracted with a studio then they have little say in much of the end result of the project.
Let’s break down the music industry into the basic components:
Composition. Songwriters often times sell the rights of their work to a publishing company who then turns around and sells the rights of the work to a studio who may place the song in a TV show or movie. The songwriter may receive royalties for the use of the song, but they won’t have much say in where the song ends up. Moreover, in the digital era, streaming makes things interesting Spotify has launched a feature to help boost the visibility of songwriters and producers. This comes after a few costly lawsuits regarding the issue of properly crediting and paying songwriters and producers for their work.
Recording. While recording studios are still around, at-home studios are becoming popular. The studios have audio engineers and producers who work with musicians to take the written songs and put music behind them. Musicians may be contracted by recording companies to create music that is owned by the company. This means the musician doesn’t have the rights to their work, which can lead to situations like what Taylor Swift went through.
Distribution. This can come in many forms, from CDs to streaming services. A license is obtained to distribute the material and royalties are made on the sales. But in the 21st-century, the rise and dominance of streaming pose a lot of legal questions around how musicians get paid and if they are adequately paid.
The Film Industry
Like the music industry, the film industry is wrought with questions of adequate pay for various creative professionals and how to adapt to streaming services that have been wildly successful at award shows, which eat into the competition of traditional studios. Here’s how the industry breaks down:
Production. This stage of movie production begins with the studio system that has been around since the 1920s. The big studios include MGM, Warner Brothers, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox. Scriptwriters, producers, and directors are assembled to work on the project. This includes casting, set design, recording, editing and everything in between.
Distribution. After the movie is filmed and ready to be sent to theaters, it first has to go through a distribution channel, which involves the marketing strategy for the film and cuts a deal with theaters who buy the license to show it on their screens. Later on, the distributor would also handle negotiations for streaming services.
Exhibition. Once theaters have bought the license to screen a movie, the ticket price is set and a portion of the ticket sales goes back to the distribution channel and the studio. The commission the studio receives is then divided up into royalty payments for those whose contracts included royalties on the movie. This same concept is used for renting a movie on Amazon. A portion of that price goes to the distribution channel as well as to the studio.
While this seems pretty straightforward, but there are a lot of twists and turns along the way, which will be discussed in later posts. It’s important to note that the game has changed drastically in the last few years thanks to streaming services, like Netflix and Amazon which operate as studio, distributor, and exhibition all wrapped in one. Because of this, indie scriptwriters and producers are skipping the traditional route in favor of embracing streaming services.
Digital Disruption & Why It Matters
The digital era has highlighted key issues for creative professionals in the aspects of ownership rights, proper payment, and audience access. This means that the creative and the consumer are increasingly having more power over what is created than ever before. Essentially, as creatives are finding their voices and standing against old paradigms in the industries, audiences are becoming more aware of how much of culture has been influenced by the industry leaders.
Supporting smaller artists has become easier and more popular than ever, which means more voices to contribute to the overall creativity that produces content people actually want to listen to and watch. There is still a lot of uncertainty and culture is still driven by the hands of a few executives, but progress is being made. And that’s the beauty of technological disruption in creative careers.
Until next time,
Rochele