It all comes down to exposure. An organized market. Wherein you focus a huge slice of the public on a certain number of artists.<\/p>\n
That no longer exists.<\/p>\n
We had radio, we had MTV, now we have chaos.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
How did that work out?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
Have you seen the video from Lollapalooza? Of everybody singing along?<\/p>\n
Take a peek:<\/p>\n
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