There Is No Top Forty
It all comes down to exposure. An organized market. Wherein you focus a huge slice of the public on a certain number of artists.
That no longer exists.
We had radio, we had MTV, now we have chaos.
We were shown this was going to happen with Napster. Napster illustrated that the public was in control, as opposed to the marketers. Yet the major labels still believe they have power and can dictate, but they can’t, which is why there have been so few breakthrough artists recently. And with this difficulty, the majors have put their efforts behind fewer and fewer artists, leaving more and more of the business to the antiques and the indies.
So what does Lucian Grainge have to say about this? PAY ME MORE! Yes, he’s been arguing that Spotify, et al, should pay his hit acts more because they’re driving the lion’s share of the market. This is the same flawed thinking employed at the turn of the century. Rather than admit their retail model was broken, the majors doubled-down, insulted and then sued their customers, declaring the CD was forever, and anybody who wasn’t willing to buy a complete album at an inflated price was a pox on humanity.
How did that work out?
Daniel Ek came along and saved their lunch. As for those criticizing Spotify, this is the same element you see on X/Twitter, with an agenda, divorced from reality. Even Universal itself just said that Spotify’s growth outpaces competitors. Why? It’s simple, it’s a better service, whose main driver is music, constantly adding features, whereas Apple’s and Amazon’s services are based on brand loyalty as opposed to the service itself.
So in a world where the customer is in charge you need to alter your philosophy. When you can’t corral the customer, when you can’t dictate, you need to innovate, broaden your offerings, seed the customer base and allow people to find and grow acts. Which they will do, can you say CHAPPELL ROAN?
Have you seen the video from Lollapalooza? Of everybody singing along?
Take a peek:
Was this driven by radio? TV? None of the usual outlets delivered this, it was pure word of mouth, along with choice tour slots. Hell, Roan was dropped by Atlantic before she was picked up by Island. In the old days of Mo and Joe, you only signed an act if you believed in them, and you nurtured and stood by them, otherwise your judgment could be declared unsound. But today, if it doesn’t happen right away, NEXT!
So instead of fashion, instead of looks, it’s now about the music. Does it resonate with the public?
And it’s not only teenagers consuming. Look at who is selling tickets, it’s a smorgasbord of acts. But the majors?
As for the legacy acts, it’s always based on sound. It’s not the me-too acts that continue to sell tickets, but the sui generis ones, the ones that came from nowhere and were so good that the audience glommed on to them.
So the Spotify Top 50 shows the most consumption, but not necessarily the most mindshare, the most devotion.Â
Remember when FM came along and blew apart the AM model? Probably not, unless you’re a boomer, but FM not only played different music, it played MORE music.
The Spotify Top 50 does not drive consumption, it’s just a reflection of consumption, which is very different from the Top Forty radio of yore.
You need to be in all markets today, from metal to adult alternative. Because you never know what will resonate and blow up. Come on, before Zach Bryan did you think an act like that would sell out stadiums soon? OF COURSE NOT!
It’s great that labels study the data, but it’s soft skills that drive music consumption. We are not selling widgets here, nor shoes, nor some other needed consumable. No one needs any act. So how do you sell an act that people need?
Taylor Swift’s audience believes she speaks for them. And there are enough in this niche to sell out stadiums. She exists in her own vacuum. She does not cross lines. No one does anymore.
Furthermore, I’ll argue her music doesn’t spread. You either like it or you don’t. Like K-pop. Whereas someone like Chris Stapleton…if more people heard it, more people would like it. It’s not adolescent, it’s not puerile, Chris is not beautiful, he doesn’t dance, he’s just selling the music itself. You’d think Nashville would purvey more Stapletons, but the labels don’t know how to do this. They triangulate, focus on looks, all these markers that have nothing to do with music.
In order to get the public excited about music…they must see something there other than commerce. The majors don’t purvey art, but commerce. It’s a business like it was before the Beatles.
And then the Beatles came along.
Don’t count on the majors to deliver a new Beatles, they’re not built for it. It will come from the outside. Because the majors have begged-off their obligation. They used to release the best music, now they release the most commercial music, which continues to shrink in market share.
Everybody’s focused on hits when they should retool and focus on music. The majors are on an unending drive to marginalization.
