Is the audience for popular music created by the music industry?

I don’t think that the audience for popular music is solely created by the music industry. I think that categorises the artist as a money making machine and the audience as a completely willing consumer, which, the majority of the time, isn’t true. 

The audience is the largest part of the music industry, but that doesn’t mean they are clueless in the process and will buy what ever is put in front of them. People will buy the music they like, whether it is an obscure band with a fan base of a 100 or an artist who’s at number one in the charts. The music industry can promote artists on TV, radio and the internet but not every person receiving this information will act on it. 

Shuker says that ‘even artists who have reached a certain status still rely on the structure put in place by the industry to reach their audience’. I think it’s true that the industry have a big part to do with the audience, as they are in charge of the distribution and promotion but I don’t agree that the audience is created by the industry, perhaps it’s the other way around.