Big Tech vs. Big Labels clash; Platform 'enshittification'; and the Upside of arena tour slowdowns
Edition 09
Hi folks
Happy Wednesday! Welcome to The Industry Playlist 🎵
This week I dive into Big Tech vs Big Labels wars, platform enshittification, and why arena tours slowdown might be a good thing.
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Finally, we don’t see enough collectives or orchestras that produce music of a unique sound (streaming economics makes them unviable). Bahama Soul Club is a German-born, but Algarve-based Afro-Bossa-Jazz act blending in sounds from all sides of the Atlantic ocean. Check out Casino De Capri
Now, let’s get to it.
SONIC SHIFTS
Big Tech vs Big Label wars are coming - Music industry and AI tech clashes are getting intense and there are lawsuits being filed everywhere. Some smarts folks are finding a middle ground through licensing. AI has important ethical questions to answer and I suspect we will make mistakes first before we get it right. Artistry is going to be the casualty. Big Tech is going to be big tech and eat into every economic value system. Big Labels have a choice, to protect their primary economic interests, OR, protect artistry/creativity (on which their economic interests rests). Yet again we see them looking to save themselves (commercial purpose>cultural purpose) rather than partnering with musicians/artists to bring something like a class-action suit to protect against AI.
Enshittification is all around us - You might not know the word but you have felt it.
“Here’s how platforms die - First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.”
It’s enshittification once the abuse starts. We are in that era wrt music discovery and consumption tech (10+ of streaming becoming dominant). DSPs wet dream is to become the modern licensor rather than be the licensee (sorry, Labels, your time is running out). The disruptors that promised democratization have upgraded themselves to the new gatekeepers. The good news is that this will eventually give into a dynamism (or frustration) that will surface new music companies of the future - start building where the cracks are showing. Thanks to enshittification, we will see a lot more of ‘built by fans/humans’ messaging. Some might actually change the rules of the game (good recent examples - createdbyhumans.ai and Corite). I’m all for this.
Concerts/arena tours are seeing a slowdown - Live industry (big scale, not grassroots) are finally past their post-pandemic boom. Big artists are cancelling arena tours, there is sponsor backlash, underselling tickets - it’s primarily an economic problem, shit has become too expensive both for promoters and fans. The latter is bad for culture (and what I am concerned about) - it’s time for a market correction. With all the money sloshing around in the music ecosystem, the concert monies will go into new places (catalog looks like the upcoming winner) but let’s hope it goes into creating new business models that support new artistry.
READ THIS SHIT
How the Music Business Can Tame the Dangerous AI Dragon? Record labels should align themselves with musicians (they’re not), demand full disclosure (where are the industry bodies?!), and other important suggestions.
Music Charts in 2024: Industry Dinosaurs or Still Relevant? The rise of streaming has thrown a wrench in the charts’ works. Pre-streaming era, charts captured sales (fans actually buying music), today the charts capture what is being heard (not only bought) - this has negatively impacted everything from discovery of new artists, to music press.
Why Is Music Journalism Collapsing? In music media, disappearing jobs are now more common than backstage passes. If people don’t listen to new music, they don’t need music reviews. All across the music ecosystem people worked tirelessly to find exciting new music and share it with the world. The irony is that exciting new music is still getting released—but almost nobody hears it. The system actively works to hide it. Algos have replaced most forms of discovery. Music journalism is the biggest casualty.
Exploring Local Music’s Place in Global Streaming. Spotify Research came out with this research and rightly observed significant sustained interaction between listeners and artists discovered in the ‘local artists’ category - demonstrating that local recommendations (offline context more generally) should form an important part of online content platforms’ strategies. I love it that they didn’t say Spotify’s strategies but generally ‘content platforms’. The spanner in the wheel? The authors who did the research were laid off last month. Sad.
PLAY - music’s next chapter. The infographic tells you everything you need to know.
KEEP TRACK OF
Duetti closes $90Mn in new funding - Duetti is a music financing platform that came out with a pretty insightful Music Economics report (see screenshot, full report here). They’ve got new funding to support artists - they unlock immediate cash flow for artists, allowing them to sell master catalogs, individual tracks or parts - something akin to a loan. They are out to build the bank for artists.
That’s all for today. We’ll be back in your inbox next week.
Thanks for reading,
Rohit