Business Models in Music History Flashcards
‘business model’
plan/rationale aimed at maximising sales and profits (identify sources of revenue, customer base, products, details of financing)
Factors good business models take into account for identifying markets and selling to them
- economic factors (cost of production + distribution + points profit can be made) - rare items profit per sale, mass-produced items profit by mass sales maxing threshold point
- nature of the market product is sold to (environmental issues, where it’s situated, financial status of potential purchasers)
- balance of necessity + desire (compositions, publications, performers, instruments, tickets)
- marketing (market products to consumer directly/indirectly via ‘mediators’)
Ways of making money in music business through entrepreneurialship
- composing
- publishing
- performing
- concerts/events
- education/teaching
- instruments (design/manufacture)
- retailing
What strategies does a business model require to sell goods/services?
- clarity! - be clear with what is being sold and why it’s special
- clear market (target market) - know the characteristics (class, gender, age)
- strategy for selling - advertising, intermediaries, use of ‘loss-leaders’
Loss-leaders
- sell something cheap people will always buy - entice customers to engage with seller
- draw people in with something they want (e.g. well-known piece by a well-known composer in the middle of a contemporary piece programme)
Intermediaries
- people/media that influence purchases
- between seller + buyer
Differences between past and modern times
- patronage vs. sponsorship/entrepreneurship
- economic struggles - rich/poor divide was greater but a middle class
- social structures rigid, now more social mobility
- communication improved from 19th century onwards (railways, print media increase)
- manufacturing processes - craft-based (slow), mechanisations = mass production (quicker)
Case studies
- publication + distribution of hymns to Welsh chapels (19th century)
- business models in sale of militia band music (18th/19th centuries)
- inaugurations of British brass band as nationwide activity (19th century)
- inaugurations of American high school marching band (20th century)
Pritchard Jones of Treherbert (19th Century)
- proposition - sell sheet music in large quantities throughout Wales
- challenges - dispersed market, bad communications, few retailers, limited musical literacy, no mass ads
- plan - serve non-conformist congregations, aim at Easter festivals
Provincial militia band (18th/19th centuries)
~150 militia bands across UK, publishers in London - how do you justify costs of publishing for max sale of 150 + distribution?
- proposition - sell large quantities of music across UK
- challenges - 150 max, need to distribute across UK
- plan - sell copies to bands but increase sales by selling piano reductions with copies to provincial young women
Victorian Brass Band (19th century)
- manufacturing process making instrument production easier
- railway development - improved communications
- 1848 Adolphe Sax saxhorns
- target audience - working-class men in newly industrialised areas - through ‘deferred payment’ (“hire purchase”) employer will pay for costs (instruments + music) in return for title as President of company brass band
JP Sousa, C G Conn + American high school marching band (20th century)
- Sousa composer, Conn Instruments
- secure endorsement of Sousa (famous), target headteachers + parents - sell instruments + marching band music to schools across America
SWOT analysis definition
Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats what modern businesses use to evaluate potential of successful proposition - calculate potential for proposition to make a sustained profit
e.g. of SWOT - 5 students start a brass band
S - play well, young, cheap
W - no manager/experience
O - appeal to schools (communicate with kids, cheap, multiple concerts in 1 day)
T - competition, if 1 can’t make a gig could lose money, how to promote/become known?
