’s new issue celebrates the 125th anniversary of the magazine -- and all the ways music has evolved along with it. As the sounds and styles of the world’s most popular artists changed, so did the business of music, too. Below, we look back on how some of the industry’s most important sectors -- labels, publishing, touring and distribution -- transformed themselves over the past 125 years.
By the time rock’n’roll caught fire, the record industry was booming, with companies like EMI, Decca, RCA and Columbia snapping up smaller companies and launching genre-specific imprints, introducing the concept of the major label. And record label functions expanded: Content owners with marketing wings added departments for A&R, promotions and publicity.
It all crashed at the turn of the 21st century with the arrival of Napster, iTunes and the digital revolution. U.S. revenues bottomed out at $7.1 billion in 2014 as companies scrambled to stem the bleeding. Again, the industry consolidated, from five major labels to four, then to three in 2012 as EMI was carved up and sold.
Since then, publishing has gradually risen to the forefront of the music business. In 1986, Stephen Swid and his two partners, Martin Bandier and Charles Koppelman, bought CBS Songs for $125 million, at the time the highest sum ever paid for a music publishing asset.