Music industry: Digital has become a life insurance

in Music4 years ago (edited)

Difficult times also for the music industry

That Corona shit also hits my love - music! Retail stores and record shops temporarily closed, many postponed releases, and with the concert stop, the best advertising and a good sales platform for sound carriers continues to disappear: Conditions have been and remain difficult, although the live sector is of course much worse.

More than ever the digital legacy has become life insurance. Even Corona was not hitting the industry that hard - music recordings in Germany were showing growth in the first half of the year and the fear that the financial consequences of the crisis would lead to massive cancellations of streaming subscriptions has not yet materialized.

YouTube - the ongoing "trouble maker"

Music video streaming remains a constant source of annoyance for the real musicians as nearly half of all music consumption takes place via platforms such as YouTube (3Speak as well :-)? or DTube?). The problem these platforms - at least YouTube - do not have to acquire fair licenses, so that their share of the industry's turnover is only a good 3 percent. Audio streaming via services like Spotify, on the other hand, accounted for more than 55 percent of sales in 2019.

One consequence of the crisis, however, will only become apparent with some delay: The distributions of the German "Gesellschaft zur Verwertung von Leistungsschutzrechten (GVL)", which licenses the use of publications for performing artists and producers of sound carriers, are likely to fall significantly in 2020. This is due, for example, to public reproduction, since less music was played in the most diverse shops.

Streaming - a complicated debate

Musicians do not receive money directly from the streaming services, but through distributions from their labels, publishers and distributors as well as from the collecting societies. Under the current "pro rata" model, the services collect all user fees in one pot and distribute them to the rights holders of the music according to an internal distribution key. This is based on the total number of streams of an artist on a platform. Critics of the current system consider this to be opaque and complain that artists who are often streamed anyway would be even better off. Especially less well-known musicians would benefit from a change.

The Association of Independent Music Entrepreneurs (VUT) also supports the demand for a changeover to UCPS, not least because it makes manipulation attempts more difficult. Opponents of a changeover warn, for example, of higher administrative costs, which could reduce the payouts. However, to date there is no comprehensive, reliable information on the actual consequences of a user-centred distribution system in practice.

Last but not least, music publishers, for example, and the authors they represent must also prepare themselves for significantly lower revenues from the use of their works. In addition to concerts, many film and advertising productions are also affected by the crisis.

Parties in clubs and the various events where music is normally played are also largely absent - a huge threat of potential losses of planned income in the millions of Euro!

Enough bad stuff - let us dance to some great Techno now

While I usually prefer the old Techno stuff here a 2020 mix by DJ Balouli (from Tunisia) that is not that bad.

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Yeah this is why I was going to be encouraging Hive as an additional revenue stream and grow an audience here. Seems now more than ever would be a good time to assess options in the wake of Coronavirus and online presence is so important in any case, why not look into alternative sites?

Another potential is Emanate that I'm looking at which is music streaming site but is very much in alpha.

However, all the online options out there cannot be beaten by the live performance. That collective energy, everyone there to have a good time and enjoy the music, maybe with some magic "supplements" to go with... Amazing! Really hope these live events come back

Thanks mate - Emanate I know since a while never checked but seems a legit alternative - live performances have to be optional also digital - will drive some innovation. I see it in my job, new thinking, new ideas, new solutions.

I can see live streams with great options for interaction on the live show, like tipping and all that stuff with tokens but sounds like you are ahead of the game a little bit there!

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It's a very difficult time for musicians. One of my sons has a duet with his partner and he plays in bars and parties for a living. He hasn't been playing since he was in his forties. Other friends who play in symphony orchestras are also unemployed. Thanks for the information

Sadly there are very few options for small artists. To get on the major outlets the artist must have a label. Personally I use Distrokid and I am quite pleased. For a flat fee of 20 bucks a year, I can publish unlimited songs to the major outlets and keep ownership and 100 % of the royalties.

Your current Rank (93) in the battle Arena of Holybread has granted you an Upvote of 8%

cooler sound :D

Your current Rank (80) in the battle Arena of Holybread has granted you an Upvote of 11%

Yes, times are not easy now, but the common man lacks just accessible and good music!
Thanks for the post!

Du sprichst einige Aspekte an, die in der Tat problematisch sind. Das ganze Ausmaß wird man auch in dieser Branche erst in ein paar Wochen sehen. Ich bin Kummer und Leid allerdings gewohnt. ;-)

Danke Andy - bei Dir bin ich mir aber recht sicher, dass du für diese Topics gewappnet bist. Falls nicht gibt es ja die Community!