Is the audience for popular music created by the music industry

Defining the music industry at times can be difficult as it consists of multiple things. Most would associate the music industry with major recording companies’ i.e. Def Jam records, Sony/BMG, Warner and Universal. Although accurate it is however not just limited to this you have to take into account the retail and marketing side of the industry. This is often in the form of artists merchandising, concerts and sales at record stores/online stores (HMV/Amazon) where consumers can buy their music. All of these factors contribute to the success of popular music within the music industry, as consumers are happy to get involved which inevitably generates a large audience. Horner and Swiss support this “ audiences depend on the music industry for access to music- access which is available predominantly through such economic transactions as purchasing records and ticket selling and advertising” (p228). Music is created to be listened to and the music industry is a business that is very much aware of this. Therefore in some respect I believe the music industry does create the audience for popular music, but is not solely down to them it is dependent on the individual.