‘NEARLY 3 OUT OF EVERY 4 ON-DEMAND AUDIO STREAMS IS COMING FROM MUSIC THAT’S 10 YEARS OLD OR YOUNGER.’
Catalog music eating into frontline music’s market share has become one of the music industry’s bigger talking points these past few years.
The industry has historically defined ‘frontline’ as any release younger than 18 months old, while ‘catalog’ has counted as any music older than 18 months.
But is ‘old’ music really getting that much more popular? Or does the definition of catalog need an adjustment in today’s streaming-led music industry – where audiences appear to be playing (and replaying) hit songs for far longer than they might once have done? “WITH THINGS BEING MUCH LESS ABOUT TRANSACTIONS AND MORE ABOUT CONSUMPTION [TODAY], IS AN 18-MONTH TIMELINE FOR CATALOG THE RIGHT METRIC? I WOULD SAY IT’S NOT.”
KEVIN GORE, WARNER MUSIC GROUP
UNIVERSAL PARTNERS WITH TIDAL TO DEVELOP ‘MORE ARTIST AND FAN-FRIENDLY’ STREAMING MODEL
For the past three weeks, the music industry has been pondering Sir Lucian Grainge‘s thoughts on potential alternative streaming payout models.
In a memo sent to UMG staff on January 11, Universal Music Group‘s Chairman and CEO referenced UMG’s preference for a switch to an “artist-centric” model to transform the way that artists and rightsholders are paid by streaming services.
Today, UMG has announced an interesting alliance with Tidal that will see the two companies work together to explore what they call “an innovative new economic model for music streaming that might better reward the value provided by artists”.
Are Your Songs Hitting the Right Target?
When I critique songs at my workshops, I always begin by asking the writers to share their intention for their song. For example, a song might be intended solely for self-expression or catharsis. Another song might be written by a performing songwriter to include on their own recording project, while another might be crafted in the hopes of placement with recording artists who do not exclusively write their own material, or for placement in television or films. Let’s examine the considerations that go into writing each one of these kinds of
songs: Songs Intended for Catharsis or Your Own Enjoyment,
Songs Written For Your Own Recording Project, Songs Intended For Outside Artists,
Songs Written for TV/Film. By identifying our hopes and intentions for our songs, we can guide them to have the best shot of successfully hitting their targets.
Calls to end fees that venues charge artists to sell merch grow louder
Testimony before the Senate judiciary committee and the operator of more than 10 live venues have added momentum to a movement demanding that music venues and promoters eliminate the fees they charge artists to sell merch at shows. Venues and promoters typically charge 15% to 35% of sales for the “privilege” of selling merch at their own shows, even though it’s the artist that’s drawn the fans doing the buying. In most instances, the artist must also pay to staff the merch table. “The argument is that the venue is providing us the retail space for us to sell our merch,” Clyde Lawrence of the indie band Lawrence told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. “But we’re providing all of the customers and yet receive no cut from their many ancillary revenue streams.“
5 Tips for Going on Your First Tour as a Musician
First time touring? Congrats! This is an exciting next step in your career as an artist, and we’re proud of you for taking it. To make sure your first tour is everything you hoped for and more, there are a few tips and tricks you need to know. Here’s the rundown… Having a great tour requires a lot more than Redbull and good vibes. How you choose where to tour is monumental in ensuring your overall success. With the help of Spotify and SoundCloud analytics, booking a tour has become almost an exact science. These tools let you see which tracks your audience is listening to the most and where those plays are coming from. If you want to optimize the chance of having sold out shows at every venue, gathering this background info will tell you exactly what your audience wants to see more of, so you can perfectly deliver every time.
Optimize Your YouTube Channel For 2023: Best Practices
A social network, a video platform, a marketing engine, a search engine. A connector, an informer, an entertainer, an inspirer. With over one billion users (aka almost one-third of the internet) and over one billion hours watched daily, YouTube is a must for the digitally driven music landscape.
Creating a channel and uploading some music videos is just the beginning, especially with new features, interface updates, short-form content pushes, and more. Ensuring your YouTube channel is optimized in every aspect is critical to your overall audience growth and success.
How do you ensure that your artist’s content and channel get noticed? Luckily, The Orchard has your back with all the tools necessary to complete the puzzle that is the YouTube algorithm and reach your goals successfully.
Has the streaming slowdown arrived?
ERA, The UK trade association for entertainment retailers released its annual estimates for the UK entertainment market, showing strong growth for video but less impressive increases for music and games. The streaming slowdown has been on the cards for some time now and there is an argument that the strong growth recorded in 2021 was boosted by the combination of the global economy’s catch-up process that year, following the pandemic-depressed 2020 and the extra impetus delivered by upfront payments for non-DSP streaming. By Q3 2022, global label streaming revenues were up by 7%, compared to 31% for the same period one year earlier. Now ERA estimates* that UK retail streaming revenues were up by just 5%. Meanwhile, the BPI – whose numbers are based on actual market data – reported total audio streams were up by 8% in the UK. A clear streaming market trend is beginning to emerge. There are no two ways about it, 2023 is going to be a challenging year. The sheer volume of disruptive trends is unprecedented in modern times, and this comes at the exact same time that the Western music streaming market is beginning to slow.
Yes, Music Piracy Is Still Here (But In Another Form)
Way back in the old music download days music piracy ran rampant and the music industry freaked out as a result. This caused a lot of irrational moves, the most egregious being lawsuits against its own customers. Once streaming came along the business released a sigh of relief because those big bad pirates were finally held at bay. But not for long. A new study from France’s Centre National de Musique (CNM), a part of its Ministry of Culture and Communication, found that music piracy has reared its ugly head again, but in a different form.
In a nutshell, the study found that at least 1% to 3% of music streams consumed in France are fraudulent, designed to siphon royalty money away from legitimate artists. That means between 1 and 3 billion streams are false in France alone, which means that some “bad actors” are making between $5.8 and $17.4 million that could have gone to legitimate artists and songwriters.
6% of Spotify staff laid
off
CEO Daniel Ek confirmed Monday that Spotify had joined the growing number of tech companies laying off workers.
That would mean about 600 of an estimated 9800 Spotify staffers have been let go. The average employee will receive about 5 months of severance pay. While efficiency is often used as the reason for layoffs, uncertain economic headwinds and a gutted stock valuation are also driving Ek’s decision-making. Spotify’s market cap has fallen from $69B in February of 2021 to $18.9B last Friday.
Why every Musician needs a Merch Strategy (and how to develop one)
For most musicians, merchandise sales are a top revenue source, exceeded only by live performance income. But selling merch is much more than slapping your logo (if you even have one) on a black t-shirt. Getting it right matters, and this guide from our friends at the musician website platform Bandzoogle shows how.
Merch is one of the biggest streams of income for musicians.
In fact, musicians who use the music website platform Bandzoogle have earned over $100 million in revenue from their sites. And 75% of that was from merch sales.
THE TOP 10 HITS IN THE US LAST YEAR ACCOUNTED FOR FEWER THAN 1 IN EVERY 200 STREAMS
According to figures revealed in Luminate’s end-of-year report, this volume of streams also saw a year-on-year acceleration in growth from 2021 (total streams were up by 121.8bn YoY in 2022, bigger than the 111.0bn rise we saw in 2021. Digging further into Luminate’s numbers, though, confirms that a long-running trend in the modern music business became even more pronounced in 2022: The Top 10 biggest hits in the US each year are becoming less popular.
MBW’s analysis of Luminate’s latest figures reveals that the Top 10 audio streaming hits in the US in 2022 cumulatively racked up 4.723 billion plays on on-demand services (Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music etc.) in 2022.
How to Claim Your Amazon Music for Artists Profile
Amazon Music for Artists - much like Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists - is a great way to delve into the data behind your release and find out who’s listening to your tracks. Once you’re verified with Amazon Music for Artists, you can access a range of analytics and data about your music’s performance on the platform.
This service offers plenty of useful info on a range of data points including streaming numbers, playlist features, voice search and more. Here’s everything you can learn from Amazon Music for Artists.
You'll also be able to pitch your new releases to Amazon's curators for playlist consideration.
The Music Industry Layoff Tracker — A List of the Companies Impacted So Far
As the economy slows and consumers ease spending, the music industry has seen a massive reversal in the tech sector hiring spree that surged during the pandemic. Here’s what to know.
In the last month alone, the technology industry cut 50,000 jobs as the pandemic-led hiring spree now faces a slowed economy and cost-cutting. The tech industry’s mass layoffs have also resulted in many music companies cutting jobs over the past several months. Here’s a look at some of the companies that have announced layoffs so far.
New Year Tax Moves for Artists
A music industry tax expert outlines ways to make the most of your money with financial moves to make all year long.
As you map out the music you want to make in the new year, it's also the right time to consider U.S. tax strategies to make the most of your money.
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction or filing any tax return.
Indie label U.S. market share grew an impressive 27.8% last year
Industry headlines focused this week on the narrowing gap between #1 UMG and #2 Sony, but the big news in the year-end data from Luminate was the strength of independent labels, whose U.S. market share grew an impressive 27.81% from 16.54% to 21.14% in 2022.
Most of the indie music sector’s growth came at the statistical expense of the top major label group UMG whose market share fell from 37.54% in 2021 to 22.57% in 2022.
Unsurprisingly, indies captured a smaller catalog market share than the majors, but still notched an increase compared to 2021, ending the year at 14.93%. UMG ended 2022 with a 33.04% market share, Sony with 26.83%, and WMG with 19.31%.
