So much easier, than piracy and buying cd's !
Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
141–150 of 192 posts
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're maybe putting too much emphasis on the platforms, particularly on them being a single opportunity that goes away at some point. Every platform, regardless of whether it's a specific function like Spotify or a content hub like YouTube, is a separate venue representing a series of opportunities, not a singular event. If you need evidence of that, you can find countless new YouTube channels finding succes…
> countless new YouTube channels finding success in the same markets This is seeing the survivors. Even if there are 100 new big YouTube channels per year for some saturated niche. That number might practically speaking basically mean zero if 10 million people every year earnestly try to succeed in that niche. The hit rate on this example is 1 in 100K.
Both can be true. The question wasn't if every artist can make it - it's not like small artists get rich off record labels.
The question was whether any artist can become a massive success without a record label. 10 years ago this didn't even make sense to ask. Today, I can almost believe it.
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#143The self-congratulatory nature of the article and quotes actually betray a self-reassurance, because in reality, record labels are rapidly becoming irrelevant. They're scrambling to figure out how they fit into the TikTok era, where artists no longer require years of financial incubation to succeed. The music industry is growing because independent musicians are finally figuring out how to navigate it without any nee…
Maybe, maybe not. There's a larger variety of business model behind record labels than what people usually mean when they refer to record labels. They're not all middlemen trying to take a cut out of artists. Those exist, and artists have always railed against the model... and then start their own label. Labels are mainly a house for all of the logistics behind an artist. No artist wants to spend 90% of their time ma…
> Maybe, maybe not. There's a larger variety of business model behind record labels than what people usually mean when they refer to record labels. They're not all middlemen trying to take a cut out of artists. Those exist, and artists have always railed against the model... and then start their own label.
It's a nice theory, but it doesn't really play out like that. For example, back in the 90s and 00s, indie record labels were all the rage, particularly in the metal world. You had all of these companies like Relapse, Metal Blade and Century Media operating "outside" of the major label system, and you'd think that would protect the artists from middlemen, but it didn't. Those companies absorbed massive amounts of money with relatively small staffs, and much to the detriment of the artists who would often go home with nothing after a tour. I watched it happen so many times that it became pointless to keep count. And don't even get me started on how little they actually supported the artists in any capacity -- they wouldn't even send singles to radio stations when the stations themselves were asking in order to put them into rotation.
There are certainly "good" independent labels, as well as good people working at "bad" major labels. I think almost everyone gets into the business because they love music and want to participate in finding and producing the best talent. However, much like every industry, once the revenue reaches some threshold and the employee counts grow, those altruistic motivations become much more difficult to maintain. Unless the person at the top of the company is wholly dedicated to music and that attitude is able to trickle down to every employee, then labels have a proven tendency to devolve into middlemanning and nickle/diming and worse.
> Labels are mainly a house for all of the logistics behind an artist. No artist wants to spend 90% of their time marketing, merchandizing, booking, etc, etc, etc. They want to create and perform. The label is supposed to enable that. As long as the label does so, then it's worth it.
That's an oversimplification and the last bit is definitely not true. A label is not actually a manager or booking agent or publicist. Labels pay people to do all of those things, in the same way that any musician can. In fact, the biggest function that an indie label provides these days beyond some physical distribution (which is also a third party service), is maintain a list of those managers and booking agents who may be willing to take a meeting with a no-name startup band just because the label vouches for them. That's about it.
More importantly, managers and booking agents still aren't going to do all of the work for you. One of the biggest shocks that bands face when getting signed, is just how much of the business and marketing work they need to do themselves. So at the end of the day, anyone is more than welcome to give away 80% of their gross to a label if they want, but they have to do so understanding that more than 50% of the effort is still going to fall on the band members' shoulders.
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#144Doesn't say how much the actual artists are seeing of this growth, and how spread out it is. These streaming services make it really hard for smaller artists to stand out, almost everyone uses the services "radio" equivalent which seems to play a very narrow scope of similar artists (mostly more well known). Basically it seems like it's easier than ever to become a musician with global reach/fans but harder than ever…
Yup. Listen to any smaller artist and they'll tell you streaming services are only good for exposure and the real money is in ticket sales, swag, and physical and digital sales to buying customers.
A lot of artists don't perform. I rely on streaming income. It nets a lot more than digital sales.
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#145The self-congratulatory nature of the article and quotes actually betray a self-reassurance, because in reality, record labels are rapidly becoming irrelevant. They're scrambling to figure out how they fit into the TikTok era, where artists no longer require years of financial incubation to succeed. The music industry is growing because independent musicians are finally figuring out how to navigate it without any nee…
The dark side to this is that artists are learning that the things labels did for them are things someone really does have to do, and some hate it. I've seen a couple artists talk about what a pain it is to maintain a social media presence (especially on platforms they hate) because the alternative is obscurity. My prediction is that there's a pendulum back-swing in progress as people figure out how to offer brand-ma…
You're absolutely correct about the dark side, and I would never want to minimize the complexity or sheer effort required to self-manage a music project. Like any startup, it is not easy and you are wholly responsible for everything that happens -- including any mistakes, of which they will likely be many. This is far too daunting for some people, and understandably so, particularly when they just want to "make some rad music with my friends, man."
That said, all of those professional services are directly hirable by any musician, without the need for a label middleman. The best move a band can make, is hire someone to handle the thing they least want to do. As you mentioned, posting on social media is the most hated of all tasks for a lot of folks, and in that situation your first hire should be a publicist (aka social media manager). It gets the largest monkey off your back, and frees up that time for all of the other business stuff that still needs to get done.
That said, you could also hire a publicist for a day, and they could assemble a social media schedule for you, and provide a bunch of templates to use, and take all of the mystery out of what to post and when and how and why. And now instead of paying a retainer or sharing gross, you're paying someone in the band to do it, and all of the money stays with the group.
As for your prediction, you're correct about that, as well, because it's already starting to happen. Many people, like myself, offer a sort of label/manager on-demand service, where for a very small consultation fee, the band gets a monthly analysis of where they're at and what steps they need to be taking, along with all of the granular instructions on how to accomplish those tasks. If I had to guess, there are currently about 1,000 people doing this around the world, but that number is growing rapidly. There are also a lot of tools springing up to help simplify those tasks.
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
They handle everything themselves. The recent tour was 200-300 cap rooms, with a couple of large clubs in the mix. Booking can definitely be a grind, but at the end of the day, the booking agencies are saving you about 5 hours of work in exchange for ~15% of gross, which they hope translates to at least $150 to make their own 2 hours of work worth it. But if you're grossing $1,000 from each gig, that's $30/hr that co…
> if you're grossing $1,000 from each gig, that's $30/hr that could be going to a band member instead of some third party These are massively different economies of scale than the labels deal with. Unless we see technological breakthroughs that make scaling easy for a DIY musician, the labels look well protected for the next generation.
> These are massively different economies of scale than the labels deal with.
You're mistaken and only thinking in terms of major labels and Beyonce. There are thousands of indie labels working at that small scale, along with countless major label "baby bands" (as they call them).
> Unless we see technological breakthroughs that make scaling easy for a DIY musician, the labels look well protected for the next generation.
The entire premise of my original comment was about how technology has made scaling easy for independent musicians. It's already happening. That's the whole conversation we're having here.
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
The dark side to this is that artists are learning that the things labels did for them are things someone really does have to do, and some hate it. I've seen a couple artists talk about what a pain it is to maintain a social media presence (especially on platforms they hate) because the alternative is obscurity. My prediction is that there's a pendulum back-swing in progress as people figure out how to offer brand-ma…
You're absolutely correct about the dark side, and I would never want to minimize the complexity or sheer effort required to self-manage a music project. Like any startup, it is not easy and you are wholly responsible for everything that happens -- including any mistakes, of which they will likely be many. This is far too daunting for some people, and understandably so, particularly when they just want to "make some…
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Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
The dark side to this is that artists are learning that the things labels did for them are things someone really does have to do, and some hate it. I've seen a couple artists talk about what a pain it is to maintain a social media presence (especially on platforms they hate) because the alternative is obscurity. My prediction is that there's a pendulum back-swing in progress as people figure out how to offer brand-ma…
You're absolutely correct about the dark side, and I would never want to minimize the complexity or sheer effort required to self-manage a music project. Like any startup, it is not easy and you are wholly responsible for everything that happens -- including any mistakes, of which they will likely be many. This is far too daunting for some people, and understandably so, particularly when they just want to "make some…
Would be interesting to get a breakdown of your work by genre and so on. It's super interesting. Have you considered writing content about this (that doesn't give away your business)? [Alternatively, how would I begin to start learning about this?]
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have any evidence of this? People have been saying labels are irrelevant for a decade or two at least now. It's never true. To succeed you need to get noticed and for that you need a marketing budget and the labels provide that. Artists can get much further than before but going viral on TikTok is not a viable career strategy for most artists.
Yes, I have tons of evidence for this, and for why all of your claims have no foundation. Allow me to provide one example of the hundreds that I personally know of or worked with (which is a tiny fraction of the numbers finding success independently). In late 2020, a band called Sub-Radio had a couple thousand followers on each social media platform and around ~15k monthly listeners on Spotify, and this was after man…
The way I see it, there is a small window of opportunity for organic growth on TikTok right now, but very soon it will become pay to play. That's the playbook for every social site out there: leave everything free during the growth days, after growth starts peaking, start charging for every valuable thing on the site.
Re: Global music market grew by 18.5% in 2021, driven by paid subscription streaming
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Labels have deals with companies like Spotify and Apple that indie artists can't make. You don't need a label to distribute your music on major music services. https://www.tunecore.com/
You're right that getting music onto DSPs has been commoditized. Parent may have been referring to promotional deals (getting onto official Spotify playlists, Discover Weekly, etc) or special royalty rates. The major labels have tons of leverage, and they definitely cut deals that entry-level artists don't have access to.
You highlighted the difference though. Independent doesn't necessarily mean entry-level, and indie artists who do manage to develop large followings on Spotify are absolutely in a position to negotiate better rates. Regardless of recent controversies, the company doesn't actually want to lose any artist from the platform, because there is an actual tipping point when the availability of the total global music catalogue influences consumer purchasing decisions. Spotify took advantage of that tipping point and won the battle when Pandora and others failed to secure large enough catalogs.