Music Recording Industry: Bruce Springsteen

¶ … Music Recording Industry: Bruce Springsteen Scenario: With the current state of the music recording industry being awkward and expected to continue changing at a furious speed, many artists are faced with several challenges when choosing appropriate business models for marketing and promotion of their music. For Bruce Springsteen, the various business models are renewing his contract with Columbia, signing a contract with Live Nation, and self-distributing his album like Radiohead.

In choosing the most suitable business model, Springsteen should consider his age, his current state of successful tours, and desire to continue touring as long as he is able. The option of choosing to extend his contract with Columbia would be categorized as a profit-sharing deal or manufacturing and distribution deal. As evident in his 35-year relationship with Columbia, the contract extension would mean that profits are shared between him and the company with a favorable environment for the artist's creativity.

However, in the profit-sharing deal with Columbia, Springsteen will only get a minimal advance from his latest album. On the other hand, if the deal with Columbia is a manufacturing and distribution deal, the company will only have a limited incentive. While this kind of deal would make Springsteen to have absolute creative control and a great source of income, it would be a big gamble. Actually, the company may not agree to make a manufacturing and distribution deal because of the lesser incentives.

Bruce Springsteen has been largely advised to sign a 360 ten-year deal with Live Nation similar to Madonna's deal. With this kind of deal, every aspect of the Springsteen's career would be managed by the label since he will become a brand that is owned and operated by Live Nation. With a 360 deal, artists have a great chance of gaining wide saturation and sales because every aspect of their career is handled by the label (Byrne, 2008).

The ten-year 360 deal with Live Nation would basically include manufacturing, distributing, and marketing of Springsteen's album as well as funding recording sessions, handling the accounting, and provision of advance money for expenses. Furthermore, Live Nation would have a great advantage in advising and guiding Springsteen regarding his career and recordings. Since the company handles all aspects of the artist's career and has a great chance of benefiting from everything the artist does, it also has a long-term perspective and interest in developing the artist's career.

Springsteen has been widely advised to sign the ten-year deal with Live Nation in order to avoid the difficulties and costs associated with self-marketing. However, this deal is not the most suitable because Springsteen already has a huge and loyal fan base and would therefore have fewer challenges in marketing his album. Secondly, Springsteen will also lose creative control since creative decisions are not left entirely on the artist's hand since the partner has too much at stake.

While he stands a chance to receive a lot of money up front in this deal, he will significantly lose his creative control. The most suitable option for Springsteen would be to follow Radiohead's way and begin to self-distribute his album. With an already established vast and loyal fan base, Springsteen stands a.