Deregulation: Changing the Radio and Recording Industries

The deregulation of the radio and recording industries has allowed for much more freedom for artists and consumers. According to The Media of Mass Communication, the deregulation, or reduced government regulation of businesses, trend began in the 1980s and continued through the 1990s into the early 2000s. Before this deregulation, many artists were not free to record what they wanted due to the overwhelming A&R units at the major labels. Serge Denisoff uses his book Solid Gold to quote an executive on the power labels had over artists in the 1950s explaining that artists like Peggy Lee would be told when to come to the studio, would sing what they were told and the label would do what they wanted with the tracks from there. Similarly with the radio, the government had regulation over what was played on a radio station with the constant threat of losing broadcasting rights.
As artists began creating their own labels and building their own recording rooms at home, artists gained much more freedom with their music. Many more garage bands could get their music out to the public as the prices of the recording equipment got cheaper. The radio expanded to the Internet with sites such as Pandora. Regulation was decreased greatly big companies were allowed to own up to eight stations in one chain. The arrival of other music networks like ITunes and Napster also changed the effect that companies had over music. Today people can listen to things like XM Radio, Pandora or Sirius radio and only listen to a specific type of music with one button or click of the mouse. Radio stations typically play a particular genre of music, but with the deregulation came many new forms of music and ways to listen to it.