Blog: Major labels

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The industry’s narrative is not always the same as the artist's narrative: Redefining success for independent artists

Cover image for The industry’s narrative is not always the same as the artist's narrative: Redefining success for independent artists
Keith Jopling
Streaming
Creator economy
Marketing
Last weekend, there was a fascinating quote from Maseo of hip hop legends De La Soul in the UK Guardian: “On our second album, we learned the importance of controlling the narrative. I learned early on that a hit record can hurt your entire body of work if you let the industry control your narrative”.
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What comes next in the music streaming model makeover

Cover image for What comes next in the music streaming model makeover
Tatiana Cirisano
Music streaming
Major labels
Independent artists
The independent music community has been rallying for change to the streaming payment model for years. Now, major labels are joining the chorus. Why? The pro-rata model has long benefited bigger record labels, but their cut of the pie is now diminishing due to a number of factors: The growth of independent music, fragmentation of consumption, localisation of music scenes, and the vast amount of music hitting streaming services.
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The future of marketing and A&R is all about scenes

Cover image for The future of marketing and A&R is all about scenes
Tatiana Cirisano
music industry
Music streaming
fragmented fandom
Today’s era of hyper-fragmentation raises all sorts of questions for the music industry, in particular marketing and A&R departments. In a landscape where it is harder than ever to have a mainstream impact, how do you drive culture? How do you break artists and build superstars? What will peak success for the next generation of artists even look like? The framework we need may have been here all along.
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Music market shares: independent labels and artists are even bigger than you thought

Cover image for Music market shares: independent labels and artists are even bigger than you thought
Mark Mulligan
Independent labels
record label market shares
Major labels
It has been a long time since the music industry has been in such good shape. So long, in fact, that there are not too many executives left who worked through the pre-crash days. 2021 was the year in which the major label groups capitalised on the momentum, with Universal and Warner going public, and Sony going on a spending spree.
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Addison Rae will not be owned: The pitfalls of the major label business model

Cover image for Addison Rae will not be owned: The pitfalls of the major label business model
Kriss Thakrar
Major labels
TikTok
Independent artists
TikTok stars are rejecting major labels. It is no secret that major labels are being outpaced by independent artists in the overall market. Addison Rae has a combined following of over 100 million between TikTok and Instagram alone, and she has leveraged her position to independently put together an all-star team for her first release.
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Facebook Might Just Have Done YouTube a Massive Favour

Mark Mulligan
content id
Facebook
fair use
The word on the street is that the deals labels have struck with Facebook for its forthcoming music service have been done on a blanket license basis (i.e. a flat fee) with no reporting. This was reported by Music Business Worldwide and has been confirmed to me by various well-placed third parties: “One controversial element of these agreements is, we hear, that these are ‘blind’ checks: effectively, advances that are not tied to any kind of usage reports from Facebook.
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