An Evolution of the Music Industry 🎶

Monday, March 8th 2021

Mar 08, 2021

Hey,

Happy Monday ☕

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Interesting

An Evolution of the Music Industry 🎶

From the MP3, to Napster, to iTunes, to Spotify, to Touring, to Virtual?

I recently watched this three-part doc, by Bloomberg Quicktakes, on the music industry and it is really worth a watch, especially if you are an artist or a musician.

I know it’s unlikely you’ll commit to it right now, on this fine Monday morning, but each part is about 25mins and it is definitely a more productive way to procrastinate if you’re bored at home.

As someone who has keenly followed the evolution of the industry since I was a kid, from a tech point of view that is, I was so impressed that they managed to cover so much, albeit briefly, in this little YouTube series, so all credit to Bloomberg Quicktakes for writing it so comprehensively.

The doc first explores the technical revolution of the MP3, a breakthrough not just for music but for web video too with a new MPEG standard for file compression.

It then goes on to Napster, describing how Sean Fanning & Sean Parker shook up the music world forever, for better and for worse, but mostly for better, I think.

The story continues on to the consequences for the labels and what they do to fight back and fight new peer to peer networks with their legitimate campaign against IP theft, but also their unnecessary litigation against the end-users, often just naive kids.

Following this comes the era of online music stores, such as iTunes, and the splitting up of albums into singles, causing huge revenue losses.

Then Spotify enters the picture, changing the game yet again, and everyone follows suit, even apple drop the store model in favour of a new streaming service.

The series of events in the doc goes right up to the present day, with the growth in popularity of live events combined with more artists forced to tour because revenues are down, which in itself has its own tolls.

And then, of course, the pandemic hit artists like a brick wall. However, on the flip side, it also allowed the growth of new mediums for streaming and opportunities for supporting artists online.

Above is part 1, the three-part playlist is - here.

Add it to your ‘watch later’.

In my opinion, during the Napster era, the loss of IP control for artists was not a good thing in the short term, but in hindsight, shaking up the archaic labels that held all the money and distribution rights was a good thing for both artists and fans.

Although streaming revenues are not nearly in the same league as CDs, the opportunity today for artists to distribute independently and recoup close to 100% of what they do earn is a good thing.

Also, as they touch on briefly at the end of the series, it is not about comparing streaming to CDs like for like, rather the earnings model has changed.

Streaming plays more of a marketing role now and live experiences such as tours and concerts, even virtual ones, as well as merchandise and tonnes of other monetisation options in the new creator economy, is where the money now comes in.

Another interesting video out there is by Colin & Samir, who break down the Travis Scott x Fornite concert, which took place last May, could these ‘experiences’ and integrations be the next big thing in music?