Impact of Globalisation on the Music Industry

Define and explain globalisation, then critically evaluate and illustrate the impact globalisation has had on a particular business, the industry it operates in, its country of origin and the country or countries the business has expanded into.

In this paper I will be discussing how globalisation has impacted the Music Industry in recent years, and in particular the multi-national giant Universal Music Group (UMG). Globalisation is a noun that is hard to define; it has many definitions depending on which scholar you talk to, which dictionary you reference, and the viewpoint you take. The Oxford dictionary will tell you that globalisation is “the process by which businesses or other organisations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale” (Definition of globalization in English). People’s perspectives on defining the word vary depending on the place they were born, where they have lived, the religion they follow, their social status, political ideology, cultural background and wealth, amongst other things, because all of these will affect whether they view globalisation to be a positive or negative occurrence. My favourite definition comes from Kenichi Ochmae; a Japanese organisational theorist most recognised for introducing Japanese management methods, such as the just-in-time method of production, to the Western world. In 1992, Ochmae said that globalisation is the “onset of the borderless world” (Al-Rodhan, 2006). This is my preferred explanation of globalisation because it is so simple to digest. From the phrase “borderless world” alone you can begin to understand exactly what globalisation is all about, however the simplicity of this definition is also its downfall because it is very non...

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...ndi, a Paris-based multi-national who in 2012 declined an offer of 8.5 billion US$ for the company from SoftBank (Staff, 2013). Universal Music Group operates in over 60 countries across the world – with its corporate headquarters located in Santa Monica (California) and Broadway (New York City) (FAQ's, 2014). The firm owns many hugely successful record labels including Deutsche Grammophon Capitol Records, Decca, Def Jam Recordings, EMI Records, Interscope Records, Island Records, Mercury Records, Motown Records, Polydor Records, Republic Records, Virgin Records and many more. This puts them is an extremely fortunate position in the music industry because they own many back catalogues of artists who have experienced huge fame and have the ability to attract new talented artists because of their history and the prestige linked to the names of the labels they own.