Jul
Music is a business with a significant economic value
“Music, at the end of the day, is a business with a significant economic value.”
You may wonder, as a reader, as to what business is there to talk about in music? Like a diamond, music has a number of dimensions depending on how you look at it. Each of these dimensions has its own beauty and sparkle that sometimes requires whole publications devoted to them. 
The majority of us, including the very people who create the music such as composers and performers, appreciate music for the entertainment value in it. After all what is a party without some good music? When at home after a long hard day at the office, what better way than to sit with a glass of your favourite drink and sip it to the tempo of your favourite tune? How about creating just the right mood in the company of your favourite person?
This, however, is not all that music offers. Music is also an art form. It is an expression of the inner sentiment of the creator or artist at a point in time. It gives a certain perspective on life and allows us to view the world through the eyes of someone else. Like any other art form, different people appreciate different styles and presentations of music. There are those who appreciate art at a superficial level and there are those who are so into it that they can almost tell you what the creator of the piece of art had in mind. The same applies to the world of music – we all appreciate it to varying levels.
Not only is music a must for entertainment or an important art form, it is also an expression of culture. It is an expression of culture either in its primitive and unadulterated form or in its evolved and diluted form. I believe I shall not be exaggerating if I say that music is the second most important identifier of culture after language. There is Scottish music, Ndebele music, the sixties’ music, music of the Middle Ages and Baroque music. Each of these ‘musics’ either represents the culture of the people of a certain nationality or the culture that was prevalent at a certain time in history.
There are other less well known dimensions of music such as the therapeutic characteristics of certain types of music. In 2001 Madacy Entertainment Group, a leading independent North American music label entered into an agreement with Coty Inc., one of the leading manufacturers of beauty care products to produce and distribute a line of therapeutic CD’s under the label, Healing Garden. There is also the effect of music on unborn babies or foetuses … I have heard some interesting stories in this regard.
The most important dimension of music however, tends to be the one that escapes a lot of people’s attention. Music, at the end of the day, is a business with a significant economic value. Let us think about it for a moment. Music is all the things we mentioned earlier, and more. It is an industry. As an industry it provides employment, attracts investments, pays taxes, develops infrastructure, facilitates import and export opportunities, builds careers and has to keep growing in order to stay alive.
