Finanza strutturata e modelli di business dell’industria musicale

[Autom. eng. transl.] Talking about the music industry means talking about record labels as they have dominated the market for over a century. Their birth dates back to the late 1800s and coincides with the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877. The first record company in history was the Victor Talking-Machine Company (then RCA Victor) which also produced turntables. RCA Victor was probably the first label to pay an artist: 4,000 dollars a song, plus 40 cents for each sale. At the turn of the century, there were three record companies established as industry leaders: the Thomas A. Edison Company, the Victor Talking Machine Company and the Columbia Phonograph Company. However, it was Columbia that invented the 33 RPM LP (1948) for contain 45 minutes of audio, while RCA created the 45 RPM (1949). The golden age of record companies coincides with the 60s of the twentieth century in which they have dominated the market with a complex business model that included the entire supply chain of music production: discovery of new artists, creation of songs in the studio, sale in the shops of records, image and communication management, agreements with the radios to broadcast the songs in the catalog, organization of television shows and tours. It was a long-term commitment that, consequently, it also involved a consistent use of financial resources.