Music: The Industry and The Artist
Tsunami, Waves and Ripples of Musical trends
Hello artists,
Sending pleasant productive energies your way as we wind up another month!
As the internet was flooded with World Music Day celebrations we got to thinking about music, the music listening experience, the changing dynamics in the music industry, the effect of the passion economy on independent music artists, the effect of Web 3 on music production, and the overall developments in the audio industry.
There is an overload of music. 60,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. Over 20% of those don’t get streamed even once. This number is encouraging and disappointing all at once. Encouraging, as it shows us the growing boom in the activities of independent and micro-artists. Production of music like other content properties has been democratized, this has also led to a saturation in the industry, there are so many artists and so much to choose from. And yet, the paradox lies in the fact that our music consumption has become more inward more playlist driven more genre specified.
So how do we move beyond this? We are constantly moving beyond this enclosed circle, thanks to TikTok and IG Reels.
Yes, as irritating as it might get to listen to the same song and watch the same hook step or the same sappy aesthetic rain and metro edits, reels, and TikToks have been crucial in viralising songs, propelling artists, and helping so many music creators find their audience.
Here’s Nigerian Artist CKay talking about the virality of “Love Nwantiti”
He is not a solitary example, think about the most popular songs of the last 6 months or of 2021. Think of songs like Heat Waves, Driver’s Licence, Comethru, or artists like Olivia Rodrigues, Maneskin, and Tai Verdes to name just a few! As much as we love bashing these trends and as much as it seem that “reels ruin all good songs” they actually don’t. In fact, these trends are giving rise to a new economy of music creation, distribution, and consumption.
What’s Next for Music Artists?
NFTs!
This is not that surprising to you. Is it?
Music NFTs do not come with inherent ownership rights. They don’t include any claim on masters or royalty rights or publishing and licensing abilities. They simply represent a scarce version of a song or album - represented on-chain using web3. There are already startups and platforms like Ditto, Audius, etc enabling music artists to build superfans and monetize their work through NFTs.
NFTs will help music creators sell tokens that entitle owners to a share of revenue streams generated by a song, almost like a dividend-bearing stock. Music creators can sell shares of the copyright associated with their upcoming songs and obtain upfront cash. This cash could help them fund their new releases: hire a great producer, set up a paid promotional campaign, etc. Fans who purchase these NFTs are eligible for monthly dividends, i.e. royalties from streaming. By divesting a part of their copyright, emerging music creators could receive an intimate form of financial support from their most devout fans.
Li Jin points out how we have come a full circle from owning CDs and cassettes of our favorite albums to streaming all and every album without any ownership to NFTs, where we own exclusive material. It will be interesting to see how this plays itself out.
The NFTs released by independent musicians have tended to mark a significant milestone in an act’s career that they want to celebrate with their fans. For Ritviz and Nucleya, it commemorated their first joint release. For THE MVMNT, it heralded the collective’s first full-length album Chaand Paar. And for singer-songwriter Pragnya Wakhlu, it showcased the animations featured in the award-winning video for her single, Katyuchuk My Love. As such, they help artists monetise their fandom and reward their most hardcore followers with collector’s items.“NFTs enable fans to own something directly from their favourite artist, and this creates a much stronger artist-to-fan relationship,” says Singh.
The Swaraj Projekt is all set to revolutionize the world of music!
The Swaraj Projekt is geared towards destabilizing the power structures in the creator economy. It is a project to uphold the supremacy and independence of creators and artists. By onboarding artists to the Web3 experience, it aims to free them from the clutches of intermediaries: think artists, think fans, think self-rule!
Swaraj Projekt's Genesis Collection is the ultimate project that pushes the boundaries of art and ownership. Coming out next Thursday, the 30th of June, it will consist of 32 creators from across the country!
A look at the current state of the Indian music industry by Amit Gurbaxani
The nation’s recorded music market has grown by 20.3% to $219 million or approximately Rs 1,620 crore. This makes us the 17th largest market in the world, the same rank as in 2020. We didn’t move up because, in 2021, the revenues of every single country tracked by the IFPI rose as they recovered from the pandemic-induced slowdown of the year before.
A substantial 58% of respondents said it was their favorite way to stream music, and 23% said it’s where they discovered new music, making it the top spot for finding out about fresh releases. Moreover, almost half of those in the 16 to 24 age bracket revealed they didn’t pay for music because YouTube had everything they wanted, and 39% of Bollywood music fans said they would pick the video-streaming service if they had to choose a single way to listen.
Revenues from YouTube make up less than a third of labels’ income, highlighting the industry’s decade-old bugbear that is the “value gap”. In other words, as much as India might grow as a market, it won’t quite thrive and break into the world’s top ten until we fix the conundrum of YouTube, for which in terms of users, we’re possibly the top territory on the planet.
Check out these Independent Indian Music Albums:
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