"Independent" Music Taking an Ever Bigger Share of the Market

[Anderton]

Interesting report on the contribution of independent musicians to the global music scene. This one takes into accounts independent rights holders distributed by major labels, which ups the percentage quite a bit...in South Korea, independent music makes up a whopping 88% of the market. I wonder if that's because the average internet speed over there is so high that downloading music takes seconds, not minutes.

 

Anyway, it seems that the "music business paradigm" continues to change, and will change even further before it starts to stabilize.

 

Anyone care to venture a guess as to what the next major change is going to be?

[Ernest Buckley]

Well, the definition of "indie" in that article is a bit misleading. According to the article, Universal, Sony, and Warner are still distributors for those indie labels. Taylor Swift is considered an indie... I wonder what percentage her sales make up for the indie label?

 

Apple is getting more involved with music by signing artists as well so I think we`ll see a bit more of that in the future with other companies sponsoring/signing artists.

 

I was hoping that Apple would sign artists with little to no public recognition but it looks like they are going with the big hitters... thats not exactly exciting but the fact that such a huge company is throwing hundreds of millions at artists leads me to think Apple has something up its sleeve to deliver their artists content besides iTunes.

[Anderton]

Well, the definition of "indie" in that article is a bit misleading.

 

I don't think it was misleading, they were very upfront that they were defining "indie" as independents holding the rights. That's where the real money is, and that's what makes someone independent. They're just using record companies as distribution chains. The next step would be to go directly to the Walmarts ans Best Buys of this world, and use them as you distribution chains.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I agree - a P&D deal doesn't mean the label owns the rights - they're just distributing. The copyright for the sound recording and songs typically do not belong to the major label under such an arrangement, but to the indie label and / or artist.

[MikeRivers]

Interesting report on the contribution of independent musicians to the global music scene. This one takes into accounts independent rights holders distributed by major labels, which ups the percentage quite a bit...in South Korea, independent music makes up a whopping 88% of the market.

 

I didn't read the article yet, but I wonder how they're measuring that 88%. Probably 88% of the total number of releases. Surely not 88% of all the dollars spent by the customers. If I can get my piece of that 88%, I'll start practicing my banjo more. That'll bring the average down to something more sensible, I'll bet.