音樂產業
2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 The music industry 音樂產業 Beliebing in streaming 高舉丁日的旗幟 Record bosses now hope that online streamingcould become a big enough business to arrest theirindustry s long decline 唱片公司老板們正希望線上流媒體能成為一盤足夠大的生意，以阻止他們產業的長期衰退 AT THE headquarters of Pandora, an online-radio firm, in Oakland, 位于奧克蘭市的Pandora總部中， about a dozen headphone-clad analysts fill in a long questionnaire as they listen. 約有12名頭戴耳機的分析員聽著歌曲信息，完成著一份很長的調查清單。 They rank whether a song s mood is joyful or hostile, the vocalist breathy or gravelly. 他們會將一首歌的基調做出分類，如歡快或狂暴;同時也會對歌唱家進行分類，如氣息流派或聲線沙啞型。 They note whether they can hear electric guitars, lutes or bagpipes. 他們會記錄一首歌曲當中是否有電吉他、琉特琴或風笛等等的樂器演奏。 Their ratings help to shape algorithms that push music to the service s 76m users. 他們的分類評級，是構成一款擁有760萬名用戶音樂服務的關鍵程序之一。 Pandora is in the vanguard of a revolution in which ever more consumers are streamingmusic over the internet to their smartphones or computers, 如今Pandora正是這樣一場革命的先鋒，消費者們正以前所未有的數量進入到音樂流媒體的世界當中，通過互聯網這一渠道，他們不再收藏音樂， instead of owning collections of songs. 而是直接通過自己的智能手機和電腦收聽音樂。 For the first time since Apple popularised the paid download in 2003, 這是自2003年蘋果公司普及付費下載模式以來， the record business is changing key again. 唱片行業的又一次巨變。 From wax cylinders via vinyl, cassettes and CDs to MP3s, 從乙烯樹脂制成的黑膠唱片，發展到了卡帶和CD唱片，再到了MP3， it is undergoing another format shiftmaybe, 此行業又將面臨一次音樂制式轉換。 some in the business muse, its last. 而有些人沉思道，或許這是唱片行業的最后一次變革。 Streaming services give music-lovers access to millions of songs, 流媒體服務能夠讓音樂愛好者們接觸成千上萬的歌曲， but the services are not all alike. 但這些服務類型都不盡相同。 Online-radio versions, including Pandora and Apple s iTunes Radio, choose what consumershear, 包括Pandora和蘋果音樂電臺在內的線上電臺模式，能夠為消費者們提供他們想聽的音樂， and the firms make their revenues through advertising. 并且服務商將通過廣告業務實現盈利。 Others, such as Spotify and Deezer, let customers select songs from a catalogue of 20m-30m,charging premium subscribers a monthly fee. 另一方面，如聲破天和Deezer的服務商，則讓消費者們從200萬至300萬的曲目中挑選歌曲，并對高級會員收取月費。 Free services that stream music videos, such as YouTube, also get plenty of play. 一些免費的音樂錄影帶流媒體服務，如YouTube公司，也在市場中分到了一杯羹。 All the variants pay the record labels some fraction of a penny each time someone clicks ona song. 以上各類的音樂服務的每一次點播，都意味著需要給予唱片公司一定的報酬。 Streaming s rise makes music bosses as giddy as a bunch of teenage Beliebers queuing to seeJustin Bieber. 流媒體業務的迅猛發展，讓唱片公司老板們都處于輕佻浮躁的狀態當中，就像一群排隊等著見丁日的丁日粉一樣。 Yet at first glance a report on March 18th by IFPI, a record-industry group, suggests thatthings are still getting worse. 然而，在最初看到唱片業組織IFPI在3月18日發布的報告之時，形勢不容樂觀。 Music labels worldwide revenues fell by 4% last year to 15 billion, a reversal of 2023 sslight rise. 與2023年的輕微上升截然相反，去年唱片公司全球收入為150億美元，較往年下降了4%。 But much of the fall was due to Japanese consumers finally giving up on CDs, as much as therest of the world had already done. 但這很大程度上要歸因于日本消費者的轉變。他們終于放棄了對光碟產品的購買，跟上了世界其余國家早已達到了的市場態勢。 A closer look shows that streaming services are starting to bring the business back into profitin countries that have suffered steady declines, such as Italy. 而進一步細究可知，在一些音樂產業持續衰退的國家，比方說意大利，流媒體服務已經開始將這一行重新帶入盈利當中。 Streaming now has around 28m paying subscribers, and several times as many who use freeversions. 如今，流媒體服務的付費用戶約為280萬人，免費用戶則是前者的數倍之多。 Last year subscription-based versions like Spotify had combined revenues of more than 1billion, up more than 50% from 2023. 就像Spotify之類的以付費訂閱為基礎的服務商們，去年獲得了超過10億美元的總收入，與2023年相比業績上漲超過了50%。 That figure does not include online-radio firms, which last year had revenues of 590m inAmerica alone, 這一數字并不包括線上電臺模式的公司。僅以美國當地來計算，去年線上電臺模式的公司獲得了5億9千萬美元的收入， a rise of 28% from the year before. 較往年相比漲幅為28%。 In America, the largest music market, 21% of the industry s 2023 revenues came fromstreaming, whose growth more than offset declines in CD sales. 在全球最大的音樂消費市場美國，2023年唱片行業21%的收入來源于流媒體，而該項業務的增長效益超過了相抵之下光碟銷售的下滑。 Streaming services have taken off thanks to wider smartphone adoption, faster internetconnections and the spread of cheap online cloud storage for music files. 流媒體服務的成功發展歸功于以下幾點原因：更廣泛的智能手機應用，更快的網絡連接，以及音樂文件的廉價線上云儲存服務。 Even so, only 4-5% of music consumers in America and Britain have so far signed up forsubscription streaming, 即便在這樣的市場環境下，目前美國和英國的音樂消費者當中，僅4-5%訂購了流媒體服務。 says Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Consulting. MIDiA咨詢公司的馬克穆里根表示。 But if just 10% of the people in rich countries were to subscribe, the industry s fortunes wouldbe transformed, 但只要富裕國家中有10%的人選擇訂購，那么整個唱片行業的命運將會轉變。 says Claudio Aspesi of Sanford C. Bernstein, another research outfit. 伯恩斯坦分析師克勞迪奧阿斯佩西這樣認為。 YouTube, Google s popular online video service, 谷歌公司旗下最熱門的線上視頻網站YouTube， is expected to launch a paid-for music-streaming service in the coming months, which shouldhelp boost the numbers. 有望在未來數月中實施對音樂流媒體服務的收費，而這將令付費的用戶數量激增。 So might bundling music with a mobile-phone subscription, as AT T is doing with Beats, 將音樂與手機服務捆綁銷售也能達到同樣的促進效果，而這正是美國電話電報與魔音的合作項目。 a seller of headphones that has branched into subscription music. 魔音公司是一家躋身進入付費音樂領域的耳機銷售商。 Arms around the world 著眼全球 Having previously fought losing battles against technological change, record executives havebeen quicker to embrace streaming s surge. 在輸掉了前面幾場科學技術戰役后，唱片公司的老總們正迫不及待地依靠流媒體業務的快速增長打一個翻身仗。 Until recently Apple s iTunes was the sole king reigning over the digital-music realm; 直到最近為止，蘋果音樂一直是唯一一位統治著數字音樂世界的霸者; now there are dozens of princelings. 而如今，則進入到了群雄并立的時期。 This gives more negotiating power to the surviving three major record labels, down from six15 years ago. 這能讓僅存的唱片巨頭從15年前的6家縮減至目前的3家，擁有更多的談判優勢。 I see myself as an arms dealer selling to everyone who will buy, says a gleeful recordexecutive. 一位心情愉悅的唱片公司老總說：我把自己當成一位軍火商，只要有人買，我就賣。 Streaming is also good news for independent labels, some of which are enjoying double themarket share they had on CDs. 流媒體的發展對于獨立唱片公司來說，也是個極好的消息，其中一些公司將市場份額擴大到了光碟時期的兩倍。 It is also making it easier for music to travel beyond national boundaries. 與此同時，跨國界的音樂傳播也因此變得更為便利。 We are getting revenue from markets where we never had a presence in the physical world,such as Brazil, 現在，我們正從以前沒有進入過的實體唱片市場當中取得收入。 says Fredrik Ekander, the boss of Cosmos, a Swedish label. 瑞典唱片公司Cosmos的老板Fredrik Ekander表示。 Charles Caldas of Merlin, a licensing agency for independent labels, says streaming alsohelps monetise the nostalgia market. 查爾斯卡爾達斯是全球性版權許可機構Merlin的CEO，而他認為流媒體同樣能讓懷舊之情轉換成利潤流入。 In the physical world more than two-thirds of sales are for new releases; 在實體唱片市場當中，超過三分之二的音樂銷售額是由新發行的歌曲構成的; on Deezer only a third of songs streamed are new. 而在Deezer，只有三分之一的流媒體點播是新歌。 To distinguish themselves from rivals and help users navigate their vast catalogues,streaming firms are offering curated playlists, 為了勝過同行的服務以及為了更好地幫助用戶管理曲目，流媒體公司們提供了精選的播放列表， compiled by algorithms, celebrities and consumers themselves. 而這份列表是由系統算法、歌手和消費者自身共同編制而成的。 Users can also see what their friends on social networks are playing, and share tracks andplaylists, 用戶們不僅僅可以看到他們在社交網站上的朋友所聽的歌曲，還能對外分享歌曲和播放列表， which helps new acts take off. 同時這也促進了新歌手的成長。 Avicii, a Swedish DJ, has become the most streamed artist on Spotify. 在聲破天網站上，一位瑞典DJ艾維奇成為了最多點播量的藝人。 Streaming is forcing a creative but undisciplined industry to pay more attention to data. 流媒體的發展令一個從前具有創造性但管理模式混亂的行業，變得更加注重數據處理。
2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 The music industry 音樂產業 Beliebing in streaming 高舉丁日的旗幟 Record bosses now hope that online streamingcould become a big enough business to arrest theirindustry s long decline 唱片公司老板們正希望線上流媒體能成為一盤足夠大的生意，以阻止他們產業的長期衰退 AT THE headquarters of Pandora, an online-radio firm, in Oakland, 位于奧克蘭市的Pandora總部中， about a dozen headphone-clad analysts fill in a long questionnaire as they listen. 約有12名頭戴耳機的分析員聽著歌曲信息，完成著一份很長的調查清單。 They rank whether a song s mood is joyful or hostile, the vocalist breathy or gravelly. 他們會將一首歌的基調做出分類，如歡快或狂暴;同時也會對歌唱家進行分類，如氣息流派或聲線沙啞型。 They note whether they can hear electric guitars, lutes or bagpipes. 他們會記錄一首歌曲當中是否有電吉他、琉特琴或風笛等等的樂器演奏。 Their ratings help to shape algorithms that push music to the service s 76m users. 他們的分類評級，是構成一款擁有760萬名用戶音樂服務的關鍵程序之一。 Pandora is in the vanguard of a revolution in which ever more consumers are streamingmusic over the internet to their smartphones or computers, 如今Pandora正是這樣一場革命的先鋒，消費者們正以前所未有的數量進入到音樂流媒體的世界當中，通過互聯網這一渠道，他們不再收藏音樂， instead of owning collections of songs. 而是直接通過自己的智能手機和電腦收聽音樂。 For the first time since Apple popularised the paid download in 2003, 這是自2003年蘋果公司普及付費下載模式以來， the record business is changing key again. 唱片行業的又一次巨變。 From wax cylinders via vinyl, cassettes and CDs to MP3s, 從乙烯樹脂制成的黑膠唱片，發展到了卡帶和CD唱片，再到了MP3， it is undergoing another format shiftmaybe, 此行業又將面臨一次音樂制式轉換。 some in the business muse, its last. 而有些人沉思道，或許這是唱片行業的最后一次變革。 Streaming services give music-lovers access to millions of songs, 流媒體服務能夠讓音樂愛好者們接觸成千上萬的歌曲， but the services are not all alike. 但這些服務類型都不盡相同。 Online-radio versions, including Pandora and Apple s iTunes Radio, choose what consumershear, 包括Pandora和蘋果音樂電臺在內的線上電臺模式，能夠為消費者們提供他們想聽的音樂， and the firms make their revenues through advertising. 并且服務商將通過廣告業務實現盈利。 Others, such as Spotify and Deezer, let customers select songs from a catalogue of 20m-30m,charging premium subscribers a monthly fee. 另一方面，如聲破天和Deezer的服務商，則讓消費者們從200萬至300萬的曲目中挑選歌曲，并對高級會員收取月費。 Free services that stream music videos, such as YouTube, also get plenty of play. 一些免費的音樂錄影帶流媒體服務，如YouTube公司，也在市場中分到了一杯羹。 All the variants pay the record labels some fraction of a penny each time someone clicks ona song. 以上各類的音樂服務的每一次點播，都意味著需要給予唱片公司一定的報酬。 Streaming s rise makes music bosses as giddy as a bunch of teenage Beliebers queuing to seeJustin Bieber. 流媒體業務的迅猛發展，讓唱片公司老板們都處于輕佻浮躁的狀態當中，就像一群排隊等著見丁日的丁日粉一樣。 Yet at first glance a report on March 18th by IFPI, a record-industry group, suggests thatthings are still getting worse. 然而，在最初看到唱片業組織IFPI在3月18日發布的報告之時，形勢不容樂觀。 Music labels worldwide revenues fell by 4% last year to 15 billion, a reversal of 2023 sslight rise. 與2023年的輕微上升截然相反，去年唱片公司全球收入為150億美元，較往年下降了4%。 But much of the fall was due to Japanese consumers finally giving up on CDs, as much as therest of the world had already done. 但這很大程度上要歸因于日本消費者的轉變。他們終于放棄了對光碟產品的購買，跟上了世界其余國家早已達到了的市場態勢。 A closer look shows that streaming services are starting to bring the business back into profitin countries that have suffered steady declines, such as Italy. 而進一步細究可知，在一些音樂產業持續衰退的國家，比方說意大利，流媒體服務已經開始將這一行重新帶入盈利當中。 Streaming now has around 28m paying subscribers, and several times as many who use freeversions. 如今，流媒體服務的付費用戶約為280萬人，免費用戶則是前者的數倍之多。 Last year subscription-based versions like Spotify had combined revenues of more than 1billion, up more than 50% from 2023. 就像Spotify之類的以付費訂閱為基礎的服務商們，去年獲得了超過10億美元的總收入，與2023年相比業績上漲超過了50%。 That figure does not include online-radio firms, which last year had revenues of 590m inAmerica alone, 這一數字并不包括線上電臺模式的公司。僅以美國當地來計算，去年線上電臺模式的公司獲得了5億9千萬美元的收入， a rise of 28% from the year before. 較往年相比漲幅為28%。 In America, the largest music market, 21% of the industry s 2023 revenues came fromstreaming, whose growth more than offset declines in CD sales. 在全球最大的音樂消費市場美國，2023年唱片行業21%的收入來源于流媒體，而該項業務的增長效益超過了相抵之下光碟銷售的下滑。 Streaming services have taken off thanks to wider smartphone adoption, faster internetconnections and the spread of cheap online cloud storage for music files. 流媒體服務的成功發展歸功于以下幾點原因：更廣泛的智能手機應用，更快的網絡連接，以及音樂文件的廉價線上云儲存服務。 Even so, only 4-5% of music consumers in America and Britain have so far signed up forsubscription streaming, 即便在這樣的市場環境下，目前美國和英國的音樂消費者當中，僅4-5%訂購了流媒體服務。 says Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Consulting. MIDiA咨詢公司的馬克穆里根表示。 But if just 10% of the people in rich countries were to subscribe, the industry s fortunes wouldbe transformed, 但只要富裕國家中有10%的人選擇訂購，那么整個唱片行業的命運將會轉變。 says Claudio Aspesi of Sanford C. Bernstein, another research outfit. 伯恩斯坦分析師克勞迪奧阿斯佩西這樣認為。 YouTube, Google s popular online video service, 谷歌公司旗下最熱門的線上視頻網站YouTube， is expected to launch a paid-for music-streaming service in the coming months, which shouldhelp boost the numbers. 有望在未來數月中實施對音樂流媒體服務的收費，而這將令付費的用戶數量激增。 So might bundling music with a mobile-phone subscription, as AT T is doing with Beats, 將音樂與手機服務捆綁銷售也能達到同樣的促進效果，而這正是美國電話電報與魔音的合作項目。 a seller of headphones that has branched into subscription music. 魔音公司是一家躋身進入付費音樂領域的耳機銷售商。 Arms around the world 著眼全球 Having previously fought losing battles against technological change, record executives havebeen quicker to embrace streaming s surge. 在輸掉了前面幾場科學技術戰役后，唱片公司的老總們正迫不及待地依靠流媒體業務的快速增長打一個翻身仗。 Until recently Apple s iTunes was the sole king reigning over the digital-music realm; 直到最近為止，蘋果音樂一直是唯一一位統治著數字音樂世界的霸者; now there are dozens of princelings. 而如今，則進入到了群雄并立的時期。 This gives more negotiating power to the surviving three major record labels, down from six15 years ago. 這能讓僅存的唱片巨頭從15年前的6家縮減至目前的3家，擁有更多的談判優勢。 I see myself as an arms dealer selling to everyone who will buy, says a gleeful recordexecutive. 一位心情愉悅的唱片公司老總說：我把自己當成一位軍火商，只要有人買，我就賣。 Streaming is also good news for independent labels, some of which are enjoying double themarket share they had on CDs. 流媒體的發展對于獨立唱片公司來說，也是個極好的消息，其中一些公司將市場份額擴大到了光碟時期的兩倍。 It is also making it easier for music to travel beyond national boundaries. 與此同時，跨國界的音樂傳播也因此變得更為便利。 We are getting revenue from markets where we never had a presence in the physical world,such as Brazil, 現在，我們正從以前沒有進入過的實體唱片市場當中取得收入。 says Fredrik Ekander, the boss of Cosmos, a Swedish label. 瑞典唱片公司Cosmos的老板Fredrik Ekander表示。 Charles Caldas of Merlin, a licensing agency for independent labels, says streaming alsohelps monetise the nostalgia market. 查爾斯卡爾達斯是全球性版權許可機構Merlin的CEO，而他認為流媒體同樣能讓懷舊之情轉換成利潤流入。 In the physical world more than two-thirds of sales are for new releases; 在實體唱片市場當中，超過三分之二的音樂銷售額是由新發行的歌曲構成的; on Deezer only a third of songs streamed are new. 而在Deezer，只有三分之一的流媒體點播是新歌。 To distinguish themselves from rivals and help users navigate their vast catalogues,streaming firms are offering curated playlists, 為了勝過同行的服務以及為了更好地幫助用戶管理曲目，流媒體公司們提供了精選的播放列表， compiled by algorithms, celebrities and consumers themselves. 而這份列表是由系統算法、歌手和消費者自身共同編制而成的。 Users can also see what their friends on social networks are playing, and share tracks andplaylists, 用戶們不僅僅可以看到他們在社交網站上的朋友所聽的歌曲，還能對外分享歌曲和播放列表， which helps new acts take off. 同時這也促進了新歌手的成長。 Avicii, a Swedish DJ, has become the most streamed artist on Spotify. 在聲破天網站上，一位瑞典DJ艾維奇成為了最多點播量的藝人。 Streaming is forcing a creative but undisciplined industry to pay more attention to data. 流媒體的發展令一個從前具有創造性但管理模式混亂的行業，變得更加注重數據處理。
