A lot of interesting 2013 Year End Data from Next Big Sound. We’ve been hearing a lot about how artists are going to be “empowered” by the internet and have new “middle class careers” without record labels. Thus far at over 13 years in, the numbers tell a very different story. We see more exploitation and less empowerment for professional sustainable careers.
All of the artists in our system were then grouped according to these benchmarks, and we found that an overwhelming number fall within the Undiscovered stage, in fact more than 90%. Close to 7% of the artists we are tracking are still Developing, but only about 1% of all the artists in our system can be considered Mainstream or even Mega stars.
Piracy has eliminated the incentive for investment in anything other than what can become the largest, most mainstream, major cross platform merchandising brands. The record labels have “adapted and evolved” to the reality of the new digital marketplace by building brands instead of bands that can be monetized over various platforms, like you know… t-shirts, touring, merchandising, endorsements, sync placements, etc.
Welcome to the future piracy brought you.
READ THE FULL REPORT AT NEXT BIG SOUND:
https://www.nextbigsound.com/industryreport/2013/
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