Music Industry Analysis
Music Biz curates a feed of music industry news articles, business statistics and trend analysis from a variety of media outlets, filtering out the noise to deliver you the actionable insights you need to succeed. Starting in 2024, these articles will be accessible exclusively from Music Biz’s social media feeds.
September 3, 2019 – The Westwood One 2019 Audioscape: Smart Speaker Popularity Continues Full Steam Ahead
The number of Americans who reported owning a smart speaker increased threefold from Q2 2017 to Q2 2019. According to Edison Research’s “Share of Ear,” in Q2 2019, 30% of Americans reported owning a smart speaker compared to the 10% in Q2 2017. Brands and their agencies are noticing this growth and are beginning to use or consider the smart speaker platform. Westwood One commissioned Advertiser Perceptions to ask over 300 marketers and agencies their perspective about advertising on voice-activated devices in January 2018,... Read More
August 29, 2019 – ‘The Formula’ Is Dying: Rap Songs With R&B Hooks Are No Longer Surefire Hits
It’s been an interesting past two years on the charts for Hip-Hop. By this time last year, seven rap songs (including three from Drake) released in 2018 had reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This year, only two 2019 rap songs (Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower”) have managed to top the Hot 100. In 2019, there is no longer a widely accepted, obvious pathway to a hit single.... Read More
August 28, 2019 – How Americans Keep Up to Date With New Music
Think about the first time you heard your favorite songs. Maybe you were driving and you heard an opening guitar riff from Joe Walsh, or the distinctive vocal stylings of Katy Perry, from your FM radio. Or maybe someone texted you a link to “Old Town Road” and you streamed it. Regardless of what you consider a favorite song, or any song that you enjoy, there was a point in time when it was brand new to you.... Read More
August 26, 2019 – Do Traditional Album Cycles Help or Hinder Artists?
From 1968 to 1977 Fleetwood Mac released 11 studio albums (and the collaborative album Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, and six compilation albums). Sometimes that was two albums a year. Prince’s output throughout his career followed a similar pattern, which felt like the norm in ‘80s and ‘90s, but when he dropped triple album Lotusflow3r in 2009, or when he released Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum on the same day in 2014, this felt more unusual and groundbreaking.... Read More
August 22, 2019 – What Could Have Been: Thrash Metal Band Slayer As Primary NASCAR Team Sponsor
On the entertainment tie-in side of things, when you think of NASCAR you think Country music or some crossover derivative. NASCAR and Kid Rock? Check. NASCAR and thrash metal band Slayer? Wait. What? If the idea of having one of the heaviest of heavy metal bands of all-time associated with NASCAR sounds like something more akin to the movie Talladega Nights, think again. Click here to read more.... Read More
August 21, 2019 – How Blockchain Is About To Change The Music Industry
The shift in music-making from analogue to digital has changed the music scene significantly in a permanent manner. With increased accessibility to music-making thanks to the digitalization of music production, competition is fierce with more players in the market due to the lower threshold. Thousands of songs are released daily with more and more musicians seeking to make it big in the pop scene. In this competitive environment, a trend has emerged in the music industry for survival and a greater chance at success: collaboration,... Read More
August 19, 2019 – Four Music Industry Trends and Predictions
The music industry is evolving faster than ever. Each year new platforms and mediums skyrocket to prominence, minting household names and reshaping the way audiences connect with artists (see: Tik Tok and Lil Nas X). Simultaneously, new technologies put creative tools into the hands of people who previously couldn’t access them. This article offers a series of viewpoints and perspectives to give you a collective (though not definitive) outlook of the future of the music industry.... Read More
August 16, 2019 – Marketers in Canada Turn to Podcasts for Brand Awareness
In Canada, podcasts are increasingly becoming part of advertisers’ content marketing menu, and many brands are investing in podcasts to deliver branded or sponsored content. And there’s good reason for them to do so: According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, about a third (29%) of internet users in Canada listen to podcasts. A May 2019 study from Edison Research and Triton Digital found that 36% of consumers in Canada listened to podcasts monthly in 2019,... Read More
August 15, 2019 – Money-Inspired Music And Why Hip-Hop Tops The Charts
It used to be all about the Benjamins, all about the cold hard cash – in this case, U.S. $100 bills, as expressed in a Puff Daddy track from 1997. But rap music and hip-hop culture – arguably the greatest global culture force of this and the last generation – is moving on from cash, reflecting trends in the worldwide digital economy. These days, it’s becoming more about the digital payments instead of paper currency. The August pages of The Wall Street Journal have taken notice.... Read More
August 14, 2019 – How Pop Stars Are Benefiting From the Netflix Boom
Everyone’s done it. It’s Netflix-and-chill time, and a song comes on. A few quick taps on the phone and that song — say, Jay-Z’s “U Don’t Know” from When They See Us, or Gemma Ray’s “Caldera, Caldera!” from Russian Doll— is now on a playlist and in the rotation. With Netflix producing so much original programming — in 2018, it put out nearly 1,500 hours of original productions, including roughly 300 original series globally — and commercial music integral to the tone of those shows,... Read More
