Streaming is buckling under the weight of new music being released every day, listenership is fragmenting, and artificial intelligence is poised to intensify these challenges. The music industry’s next era of growth lies in monetising fandom, not consumption. However, streaming has had the unintended consequence of encouraging passive consumption, so the industry must understand how to cultivate fandom before attempting to monetise it. As music creation goes mainstream, the future of artist-fan relationships will be much more creative, derivative, and collaborative.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Ableton, Amazon, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Artiphon, Audiomack, Bad Bunny, Bandcamp, Bandzoogle, Braindead, ByteDance, Cameo, Catalog, COLORS, CoSo, Discord, Dominic Fike, Dua Lipa, El Muerto , Euphoria , Fave, Fortnite, Grimes, Hello Merch, Holly Herndon, HYBE, HYPH, Instagram, Ithaca Holdings, MAG Signature Sound, Marvel, Mayk.it, Metta & Glyde, Minibeats, NetEase Cloud Music, NPR Tiny Desk, OnlyFans, Patreon, Radiohead, Ripple, Roblox, Saturday Night Live , Snapchat, Softside, Soccer Mommy, Songfinch, Sony Music Group, SoundCloud, Sound.xyz, Splash, Splice, Spotify, Tencent Music Entertainment, TikTok, TikTok Music, Travis Scott, Twitter, Universal Music Group, Versace, Warner Music Group, Weverse, YouTube, and YouTube Shorts