The Death of the Long Tail The Superstar Music Economy
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The 20,000 Foot View
The century decline in recorded music revenues continues to send shockwaves throughout the music industry and although there are encouraging signs of digital-driven growth, the impact on artists is less clear. The concentration of the majority of recorded music revenue around a small share of musical works has led to the emergence a Superstar artist economy. The promise of the long tail proved to be illusory and the resulting picture is one of contrasting fortunes of the super successful and the rest.
Key Findings
- Total global income from recorded music in was billion, down from billion 2000
- Artists’ share total income grew from in to in 2013, driven by such as higher revenue shares some digital deals for artists
- Of an single less than half goes the label and artist combined, sales tax, retailers and publishers for the remainder
- The recorded market is a ‘Superstar artist’ with the top of musical accounting for of all artist
- The concentration a reflection of the natural of music towards hits but stores and services have an strong bias towards the top
- Digital concentration driven by a) smaller amount ‘front end’ display for digital – especially on mobile devices and b) by consumers being by a Tyranny of Choice which excessive choice actual hinders
- The democratization access to music distribution has great benefits for artists but contributed to even greater confusion fans
- Superstar artists not mean an absolute domination major label artists, indeed many artists have broken through into top and independent repertoire can over index on digital services
- The catalogue race has become entirely detrimental consumers’ digital music experiences
Companies mentioned in this report: Vevo, YouTube, PRS for Music, Big Machine Records, XL Recordings, Glassnote