Effects of Streaming
Music streaming has created a change in the way artists receive revenue. From personal branding to a reliance on merch, artists have taken things into their own hands. Here we have a few of the ways that artists have adapted to fit the new revenue model caused by streaming, consumers should look at these adaptations as a new way to support artists.
The Artist Brand
The Artist Brand For many music fans, the idea of being a wealthy, famous musician can seem appealing and disassociated from the world of work. While the public might not be aware of the fact that music makers are actually cultural workers. The perception of celebrities as ‘brands’ is now common across the world of fame. This concept of being a branded individual is also present in the music industry. With the increased popularity of streaming, record labels and artist must now aggregate multiple revenue streams connected to artist-brands. This means that almost every aspect of an artist image can be exploited for profit. The idea that record companies are interested in marketing an artist as an ‘entire entertainment package’ whose creative output extends well beyond music is not new. (Meier, 406) The popularity of this concept has increased in the music industry, largely due to the ever-increasing impact of streaming platforms on music revenues. The reduced profit margin from music has directly affected the structure of the music business. “It is now standard for record labels to request participation in a broad range of revenue streams, such as music publishing, live performance, merchandising, licensing, branding, and sponsorship revenues.” (Meier, 403) Record Labels now approach ensuring profit margins on their artist through multiple rights contract OR “The 360 Deal”. This industry dynamic becomes problematic because it means that industry personnel will not embrace upcoming artists unless they have the potential to be profitable ‘brand’. This also means that when artists do enter the industry, they will be subjected to participating in a 360 deal.
Touring
With the reduced revenue from releasing music, artists rely on touring much more than before. It is pretty common to have artists now do a festival tour during June-August and then run a solo tour for a few months during the rest of the year. This can lead to artists touring for half of the year if not more. Big name artists like Martin Garrix are known to do well over 100 shows in a year, meaning that commonly they spend about â…“ of their days in a year playing shows. Reportedly the price to book Martin Garrix per show was between $50000-10000 in 2015, with a continued rise in success, that number will only continue to grow. One of Drake's recent tours reportedly netted him $79 million. Artists heavily encourage consumers to come to shows as the main way to show support as it is an effective way for artists to earn revenue.
