The revival we need, urgently, is of recorded music income
The revival we need, urgently, is of recorded music income
I think this understanding is crucially necessary for musicians hopping on this "trend". Like they could make action figures or mood rings or whatever. What the fans want are buying is a tangible thing, a keepsake.
So first they need an actual fan-base that may be interested in a keepsake, and the keepsake should be worthwhile, feel luxurious. Like it doesn't need to actually be expensive, but it shouldn't feel cheap.
I think a similar trend has happened with books. Certainly, e-readers are awesome. But for some things, you really want to have a physical copy. And in that case, a hardback is way better than a paperback. It is a long term keepsake and looks nice on your shelf.
I think for many people, their collection of music, books, or other items allows them to show off their personality to their guests. When I go to someone's house, if they have a large bookshelf, I love to look through it to get an idea of their interests. It can be great conversation starters. You can't do that with purely digital media.
But it is undeniably the coolest way to listen to music. It takes effort, it is an event, a ritual executed with great care.
0 - https://www.techdirt.com/2010/07/13/riaa-accounting-why-even...
Which brings to mind, I always wonder how pop artists are reaching platinum sales today, because their physical media has zero prestige to most collectors. Is it from radio stations and DJs or something? The figures just don't make sense to me. Pop music fans use Spotify or the radio, by and large.
There is a big difference between a musician and a performer. The bands that are both certainly have the biggest advantage, but we shouldn't discredit people who are just making music.
It started before covid, so I think live events won’t be much of a revenue source in the future, except for a select few artists who will attract those still enjoying the crowd experience.
I kinda hope memberships programs and other direct artist/fan settings come to fill that gap at a larger scale.
Yes!! This is how it's supposed to be. The music itself is not scarce, it's the artists who are scarce. Society doesn't need this copyright rent seeking system. If artists want to make money, they should need to actually perform.
Unless you happen to be amongst the absolute minority of people having a hit single on your hand or a popular back catalogue, you can't expect to make a lot of money from online streams. Several sources [2][3] report that Spotify pays around 0.003 USD per stream on average. Supposedly your musics share of everything streamed in a given month will also impact the actual payout.
[1] - https://gloriousnoise.com/2022/data-2021-total-music-sales-a... [2] - https://subjekt.no/2020/08/09/som-musiker-er-det-nesten-umul... (Norwegian) [3] - https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/spotify-pay/