ALBUM SLEEVES RIP 4AD legendary designer

Immediate NB: the recently deceased designer in question, Vaughan Oliver, used explicit images in a small number of his works.

The point of sharing this is more for a reflection on what's lost with the shift to streaming - and helps to explain the utterly contrary surge in vinyl across all age ranges.

By chance I read a book on the label 4AD a few months ago, one of the kings of 80s/90s uncompromising indie, home to the likes of The Pixies and Cocteau Twins, artists who would've been suffocated and transformed at a major label.

I'd argue that it was another 80s/90s designer, Peter Saville, who helped make UK label enduringly iconic, who produced sleeve art that has broken through into contemporary mainstream culture. I see simulacra of his most famous Joy Division cover in many unexpected quarters these days. 

There are so many other legends, notably Hipgnosis, and the album art of the likes of Iron Maiden continues to be a core part of their brand identity and appeal, directly linked to massively successful merchandising.

So ... when you come to meet the challenge of creating album art will be aware of the design innovations of the creative giants that strode the psychic realm of the imagination before you, producing nuanced, provocative pieces that would give a Freudian psychoanalyst nightmares?!

Couple of initial links: 

Lost worlds of sex and magic: Vaughan Oliver's album sleeves for 4AD

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/30/vaughan-oliver-album-sleeve-design-4ad-label-pixies-cocteau-twins?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail (NB: contains one explicit image from a Pixies album cover)

Peter Saville on his album cover artwork

https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2011/may/29/joydivision-neworder?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail 

ALT VIDS 4K remasters

Not really an 'alt vid' but something I blogged on years ago just caught my eye.

What's early 80s Xmas classic has been remastered to 4K, perfect for all those big screen TVs out there. Having worked on a cover video recently, this is quite an upgrade on the 480p version that was previously the official upload!

Long tail theory/Retromania indeed...

https://youtu.be/bwNV7TAWN3M

Here's another that caught my eye - Motley Crue's Looks That Kill ... '2019'. A smart promo boost for their just announced reformation and huge American stadium tour! The song dates back to about 1983, and also had sub-HD options only until now. 

The music video is getting a new lease of life in parallel with back catalogue albums as YT especially is the music player of choice for gen Z'ers, too skint or tight-fisted (or plain entitled?) to pay a monthly tenner for ad-free Spotify.

Mötley Crüe - Looks That Kill - 2019 (Official Mu…: https://youtu.be/A5_f_uOKcB4

MERCH Metallica tie-in with surfing fashion brand

No sooner was I mentioning what a great merch case study Metallica make when I spotted this latest addition...

https://www.loudersound.com/news/metallica-pay-tribute-to-surf-icon-andy-irons-with-new-clothing-range

MERCH Metallica figurines

Yet another example of why Metallica make for a great case study (at the genre neutral, or general conventions, level) - news of yet more merch, collectable figurines, need catnip...

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/motley-crue-metallica-sex-pistols-rage-against-the-machine-block-figure-toys-available/

ALT VIDS tour teaser behind the scenes

The album teaser and special edition unwrapping vid are now, alongside the lyric vid and visualiser pretty common - and I'd imagine this next format will become ever more common too.

It generates shareable social content and e-zine articles like this one (and of course this blog post too!).

Bottom line, it helps spread the word that a tour is taking place...

https://metalinjection.net/av/motley-crue-def-leppard-poison-tour-behind-the-scenes-featurette-released

MERCH Depeche Mode link with fashion brand

These guys make such a good case study - long history of amazing videos, especially with Anton Corbijn; exemplary use of social, including the successful fan takeover of their FB during the last global tour; which was reflected in the convergence of their one-off cinema performance movie, directed by Corbijn, in November 2019 (which grossed around $3m from its one day release); and now, to add to their extensive merch range ...

... a tie-in with a cutting edge fashion brand.

Something to think about when putting together your store simulacra and seeking to generate social media content...

Perfect example of course of how an artist also generates publicity...

Noah Releases Capsule Collection with Depeche Mode

https://www.gq.com/gallery/noah-depeche-mode

HISTORY Megadeth invented band websites 1994

Rather intriguing tale of how a couple of hardy souls pitched to Capitol Records doing a revolutionary web campaign for an album, back when the global web audience was about 20m and a modem was required to get a 14.4kb/s peak connection...

https://youtu.be/iMmz2HzsSvI

MERCH Metallica add socks for middle-aged fans

Of course the term middle-aged won't appear anywhere near the marketing for this, but that's surely the idea for a band who started making a noise in 1983?

They've made further headlines in 2019 for their whiskey and beer lines. The Metallica money-making juggernaut rolls on

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/metallica-teams-up-with-stance-for-line-of-socks/

CONVERGENCE BIG 3 Sony PS5 horizontal integration push

https://bgr.com/2019/10/24/ps5-leak-sony-music-soundtracks-death-stranding/

PITCH DEVELOPMENT - BUILDING A CHARACTER

You need to be really clear on (especially, NOT exclusively!) the fictional protagonist (or Proppian archetype of the hero... Campbell's 'hero' who, reflecting the 'monomyth' - and to a degree Todorov's theory of narrative structure [NEW equilibrium...] will go on a quest, the hero's journey...).

A moodboard will help enormously with this, which can be a mix of objects, people and more. Try this simple exercise...

List 5 films/TV s/he watches; 5 gadgets; 5 items of clothing; 5 places s/he's been to; 5 drinks/foods they like; 5 random further details (eg family, friends, quirks, talents, job...).
Now add any 3 images which represent their binary opposite (which might help start developing further characters + flag up things to avoid in costume, body language, mise-en-scene generally...)

NOW can you sum up the character in a couple of sentences?

SUGGESTED POST TITLE
NARRATIVE - visualising the characters [or a sep post for each main character]

FORMAT/PRESENTATION
A Ppt could be a convenient, quick way of doing this (1 heading, 5 images per slide), though adding images into a single Word doc without any accompanying text as an ADDITION would be simply smart - killing two birds with 1 stone, with apologies to our avian friends...

REFLECTING KNOWLEDGE/UNDERSTANDING OF THEORY
Note my brief usage/application of basic narrative theories above - the more you do this, the simpler such concepts will become for you. I only learnt them myself through repeated application!!!

THEORY CHALLENGE
Can you further apply more advanced theory like Hebdige's concept of subcultures, or (and these link together well!) Pierre Bourdieu's notion of cultural capital?

CHARACTER COMPARISON
As you review each set of answers, have a go at expressing the ideas as 1+ existing people/characters (eg the Mr Robot lead with a dash of Graham Norton - a brooding, ultra-talented (area?) individual with a camp side, fondness for pop culture as well as 'high culture'. Can you now create an additional moodboard?

STREAMING HAS SQUEEZED BACK CATALOGUE 90pc of streams for post-2000 recordings

This is an interesting corrective to both the infamous long tail theory (comprehensively trashed by Anita Elberse in Blockbusters) and the rather more convincing gist of Retromania, Simon Reynolds' reflection on the impact of converged technology in flipping the music market from its dominance by whatever was temporarily, currently popular.

The figures are astonishing - 73% of all listens are for releases since 2010 with a further 15% for 2000-2009 releases. 

For the student video-maker it does flag up the need for creative music video to boost back catalogue performance - a live Led Zeppelin video and a Rolling Stones lyric video being seen as archetypal examples of the approach of adding new visuals to older tracks.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/streaming/8533315/catalog-music-labels-market-older-music-streaming-singles

TV SOUNDTRACK goldmine for featured artists

‘Golden age of TV’ gives boost to music industry

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/18/tv-streaming-services-revitalise-music-industry-netflix-amazon-prime-video?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

VIDEO EXAMPLES Jinjer one location masterclass!

This caught my eye as a nice example of what you can be looking for and blogging on at any stage, without any template or prescribed points - simply practices that catch your eye!

From the video below I was struck by...
Great use of a single location. I've pushed previous groups to make the effort to haul drumkits out to awkward locations, and you can see the visual impact here. For student examples see Sunburnt in December, Smiths and Joe's Nine Inch Nails...
The single location worked because a narrative was included, taking pressure off the performance shots. It was fairly abstract without really being concept as Firth defines it. Ambiguous and polysemic - Vernallis would spit feathers at the idea of deeming this elliptical fare a narrative!!! - but it raises the video from a simple performance shoot.
Note how the singer is incorporated into this, adding power and intrigue (narrative enigma...) into her performance.
Nice use of a single VFX, the dust clouds. No idea if this was done in FCPX via a plugin (which are created in Motion remember) or After Effects/Adobe, but it's moody and raises the location to another level in a way that'd have been rather tricky if relying on diegetic shots, live FX
In turn, that works particularly well because of the plentiful but judicious use of slo-mo plus accelerating motion. Slo-mo is a basic convention it's easy to overlook - I direct you once again to the Pixies (Silver Snail? from rough memory) for exemplary examples (maybe not Velouria, the ultra-exaggerated version - like 1 of the 3 promos for U2's One...)
Another way the performance is dramatised is drone shots through the widely split legs of guitarist/bassist, a really cool albeit risky (health and safety alert!) diegetic visual effect
The mirroring effect (on top of some actual mirrors at the location) helps too. It's close to being overused but generally works well as a visual but also to signify dislocation and simply to play with (Goodwin's convention of) looking.
A glimpse too of the media c-word... The convergence evident in this small-scale indie band affording the fairly impressive visual FX sparked by the gore of the headshot...
Always worth stating though - never use a gun in a student video. And I'd be wary of doing so professionally too as it's got scope (yup, I punned...) to backfire ... A woke gen Z won't necessarily appreciate the use of one given the easy links to school shootings and more

https://www.metalsucks.net/2019/10/11/jinjer-are-blowing-up-heres-their-new-single-video-on-the-top/

BRANDING 5 tips on creating brand image

There's frankly a lot of waffle in this - I'd suggest skimming through as I did, you may at least find a useful quote or 2 (some of the points made are on the mark though!)

https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2019/09/5-tips-for-branding-yourself-in-the-music-biz.html

INDUSTRY Metallica biggest tour earner EVER

I would've thought it'd be U2 or the Rolling Stones, but with $1.4bn lifetime ticket sales it's the band who haven't recorded anything decent since 1991, when they recorded their 5th-best album...

Also loved the fact thrown in that the 2 biggest 'apparel sellers' (items of clothing sold) worldwide are NYC baseball caps and ... Metallica tee-shirts. Fond memories of the endlessly controversy-causing Metal up... tee from back in the day before that 5th album dropped, ripped to shreds at a Belfast death metal mini-festival!

https://loudwire.com/metallica-biggest-touring-band-ever/

Dennis Arfa, an agent at Artist Group International, feels Metallica can rightfully lay claim being the "biggest band in the world."  He explained, "Not only are they a stadium attraction, but they sell out in secondary and tertiary markets where you wouldn’t see many artists playing at all. The fact they can do the type of business they do all over the world – the two biggest apparel pieces in the world are a Yankees hat and a Metallica T-shirt. This isn’t a 10-year phenomenon, this is a stadium band since the mid-’90s and they have continued to win on the biggest levels, with $6 million-plus grosses."

BIG 3 CHINA giant with Spotify link buys chunk of Universal

UPDATE, 31/12/19 - DEAL CONFIRMED

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/31/universal-music-sells-stake-to-chinese-giant-tencent

I've seen this story pop up on a couple of sources - the R Stone feature is a fantastic overview of the complex impact of China on the global market, and specific detail on share deals.

Share deals isn't a phrase likely to get many hell yeah, but this is a picture of how the mega-conglomerate pantheons render our diverse world a simple space and place for their capitalistic ventures. I'd no idea some $430bn Chinese megacorp did a 10% ownership swap with Spotify (so Spotify doesn't challenge their 85% share of China's streaming market). If that bewilderingly colossal conglomerate, TenCent, buys 10% of Universal that makes the big 3 combined worth $85bn. A sixth of this Chinese conglomerate. Simply wow.

It could give Universal a Disney-sized lead in the global market too - their artist Taylor Swift just became the 1st non-Chinese act to gain 1m equivalent album sales (in a week if I remember right).

Lets hope it boosts ed Sheeran sales too, as more people listening to his awesome blandness is just what this world needs

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/tencent-entertainment-music-business-universal-spotify-885297/

DISTRIBUTION strategies to game streaming success

This is one of a series of features by the iconic music magazine investigating the current state of the music industry. Another looks at the shocking rise of pay-to-play, or payola as the banned practice is also known, and explains how paying $1000 for 2 plays after midnight on some obscure station can be parlayed into attention from bigger stations (swayed by the 'most added' stats on songs getting added to stations' playlists).

Very much worth examining the naming strategy etc in this article, techniques you might reflect in your own designs...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/gaming-search-hits-878127/

DISTRIBUTION ads used to game YouTube views numbers

https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2019/08/new-way-to-game-youtube-views-being-utilized-by-artists-labels.html

MERCHANDISE an overview

TBC - I'll pull together a comp from the many, many posts on this when I've time...

ARTIST RESEARCH

A big part of this looking for any media appearances, which I've covered before. This is just a quick guide to the topics/themes you should explore - ideally before your main shoots commence. For eval Q1 (and potentially aspects of exam Q1A/1B) it is important to be crystal clear on which 'conventions' (think branding too) you followed, and which you challenged (and why, of course!).

KEY AREAS OF RESEARCH

BRIEF HISTORY incl. DISCOGRAPHY  + CHART STATUS + (SUB-)GENRE/S 
RECORD LABEL/S (eg UK, US)
SOCIAL MEDIA, STREAMING (+ AUDIENCE)
MEDIA APPEARANCES (+ AUDIENCE)
EXISTING TEXTS: VIDS, DIGIPAK, WEBSITE, MERCH
BRAND/IMAGE SUMMARY + POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

BRIEF HISTORY incl. DISCOGRAPHY  + CHART STATUS + (SUB-)GENRE/S
Don't fall into the common trap of a pointlessly lengthy bio, a too common website 'feature' in the Wiki era. Keep it pithy! Do include their discography (Wiki screenshot/s are fine) + not just facts on their charts record but commentary/assessment on this. Is your promo package likely to be hitting a mainstream audience? Is there a pattern of appeal in any particular market/s (ie country/ies)? Any key line-up changes?
Remember you'll likely want to feature some or all of their album discography in your website (linked to DL/streaming).
It should be obvious that correctly stating their genre(s) is key, but its not always easy - and certainly DON'T rely on Wiki for that!!! They might have mixed multiple genres over time, or be defined as hybrid act. Whichever genre(s) you identify as pertinent you'll need some (not necessarily huge detail on every one!) research into notable conventions, especially visual/image. You could use genre chart; Spotify tagging, article quotes etc as evidence.

PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY How BLOCKCHAIN links unsigned songwriters, artists to stars

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ilkerkoksal/2019/08/19/how-blockchain-is-about-to-change-the-music-industry/

INSTAGRAM why it's important for music industry

https://www.complex.com/music/2019/08/instagram-hidden-likes-update-music-industry

SOCIAL MEDIA WEB 2.0 Slipknot Guns mask Facebook filters

https://www.metalsucks.net/2019/07/31/breaking-facebook-introduces-slipknot-guns-n-roses-filters/

MERCH Metallica album covers jigsaws

https://www.kerrang.com/the-news/the-first-four-metallica-albums-covers-are-now-jigsaw-puzzles/

MONETISING Stars offer personalized video shout-outs

http://www.metalsucks.net/2019/07/11/members-of-slayer-megadeth-trivium-and-more-are-now-on-cameo-offering-personalized-videos/

INDIE INDUSTRY 2019 report

https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/11/independent-artists-the-age-of-empowerment/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissamdaniels/2019/07/10/for-independent-musicians-goingyour-own-way-is-finally-starting-to-pay-off/

CONVERGENCE Madonna fan remixes at Apple stores

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/14/apple-madonna-today-at-apple-music-lab/

ALT VIDS New vid for back catalogue tracks

I dimly recall posting on this (probably giving Doors and Beatles examples) before, but with minimal web connection for now I'll make do with this addition - glam/sleaze rocker archetypes Motley Crue, of recent biopic The Dirt fame/infamy, have cut a new vid for a track from their debut album (1983?).

Remember, this is essentially what you're doing with your coursework (dependent on track selection)!

https://www.loudersound.com/news/motley-crue-release-new-video-for-their-early-80s-track-take-me-to-the-top

5G TO BRING NEW DISRUPTION OPPORTUNITIES

https://hackernoon.com/is-the-music-industry-ready-for-5g-embracing-the-future-of-music-beyond-streaming-18867590a2e5

WEBSITE suggested themes for analysis

This is a quickfire list; think about it yourself and come up with 10 themes that make sense to you...

Note the different tags on this post, and use them...

top links (how many, lang used)

top banner, background image

band name/logo (+ possibly linkage to social icons); use of font/s

pushing current release

popups, including push for subscription/user info

embedded/featured social/UGC, incl logos (+ which ones)

streaming media options

direct address? any direct/personal comms from the artist

white space - leaving enough for uncluttered look; breaking up chunks of text with drop quotes etc

merch

INDUSTRY 10 trends shaping the global industry

https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/10-trends-that-will-reshape-the-music-industry/

PIXIES PODCAST promo perfection?

see below for more

DISTRIBUTION Moby gives sleep app 30 day exclusive

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/moby-releases-new-album-exclusively-on-calm-app-with-potential-audience-of-45m-people/

UGC VIRAL TikTok and RockSmith

https://www.reddit.com/r/rocksmith/comments/almd1f/rocksmith_community_video_iron_maiden_fear_of_the/

STREAMING RATES Raw deal for some Indies

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/01/30/2018-streaming-music-price-bible/

UGC Fans film Slash performance video

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/how-slash-got-more-than-400-minutes-of-fan-content-in-just-a-few-days/

INDUSTRY 2018-19 points

IN THIS POST:
See below for a list of themes/points/case studies covered.
The idea of this is to gather a range of resources, as I encounter them, which help to inform you on the music industry. it will be a rather big post! Use this with an earlier summary with examples mostly not referenced here, but also the various tags!!!

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8520844/money-makers-major-labels-individual-revenues

Do they pay enough? This audio atrocity made a lot of money for a charisma-free star... Read on to find out who

“At the beginning of the digital revolution it was common to say that digital was killing music,” said Edgar Berger, chief executive of the international arm of Sony Music Entertainment. Now, he added, it could be said “that digital is saving music.” [NYTimes]

......

Did you know that primitive, bleepy (polyphonic) ringtones were the 1st major market for the music biz on the then new smartphones? This headline comes from 2005, when people paid up to $/£4 for a single ringtone, changing these as the charts changed. Online distribution, popularised by piracy site Napster from 1999, began to be monetised by labels from 2000, and by 2003 this was a booming market. In a sign of how fast things change, digital downloads, the 2nd big market, are tipped to disappear soon ... and the ringtone market (and charts!) already has. Of course, there's now a retro market for this defunct technology, and Crazy Frog lives on...
....

TO EDIT......
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/metallica-napster-lawsuit/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/tim-ingham-music-industry-status-2018-771105/

HMV is a bedrock of the British music industry – its loss would affect us all

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/30/hmv-is-a-bedrock-of-the-british-music-industry-its-loss-would-affect-us-all?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

IN THIS POST: 
I began this just as a summary on a report on UMG's increasing profits, but I've widened it out to provide key facts/figures on the music industry. As well as multiple tags (monetising, merchandise, music industry, Spotify, distribution etc) you can find key posts like this industry summary, ppt on Bicep example with more egs of monetising, and this post with graphs and stream revenue calculators, + this 2018 summary which drew on multiple articles:

• when did it peak (were revenues highest)? 1999
• why did revenues fall after this? Online distribution made piracy easy (eg Napster) and undermined the appeal of expensive CDs 
• by today a whole generation has grown up with the attitude that music is/should be free; not prepared to pay for albums (there's even a political party campaigning for this: The Pirate Party)
• ...indeed, the album is being undermined, with streams from albums on Spotify typically focused on just 3-4 songs
• monetizing recorded music is therefore not as easy as it once was;
• the existing business practice, distributing recorded music as physical media, was disrupted by convergence/digitisation
• the smartphone (+phablets/tablets) is the key converged device for the music industry, overtaking the PC where previously people would access the likes of Napster
• by 2012, streaming/digital sales revenues overtook physical sales in the US
• it wasn't until 2017 that this happened in the overall, global market (broadband, 3G/4G rollout and take-up being slower in many markets)
• the digital sales market was initially key, especially iTunes sales, but will soon be overtaken by vinyl revenues!!! 
• other early digital markets have quickly disappeared as technology accelerated: ringtones were a huge market just a decade ago
• the video in this post uses the 'polymorphic', 8-bit music style that people used to pay a few euros to get for their phones, before continued convergence made it easy to load your own (probably ripped from YouTube) MP3
• starting in 2000, this was the 1st way the music biz had of making money from phones - the US ringtone market alone was worth $300m by 2004 (Japan $900m, globally about $3.5bn [see Wiki]). It declined from 2008 on; by 2014, the ringtone chart was abandoned (see this article)

  

  a whole market that's now gone: polyphonic ringtones

• see this interactive website to sample a range of ringtones over time! 
• streaming now accounts for over half of all music industry revenues and is growing, while physical media sales continue to fall 
• UMG 2017-2018: digital (streaming/sales) up 1/3, physical down 20%
• the payment per stream remains controversial: the music industry strongly argue that YouTube especially must pay much more - see the calculator below
• the EU may pass laws to force YouTube to pay more...
• ...which may lead to millions of fan videos being taken down!!!
• touring (tickets) and merchandising, + sponsorship, tie-ins, etc are another key means of monetising for artists and labels
• but labels increasingly force artists to sign '360 deals' including image rights + a % of tour revenues

........................................
DOES YOUTUBE PAY ENOUGH PER STREAM??
I've blogged on this (and Spotify and others before); here's a revenue calculator for 1 of the most streamed videos ever ... you can try it for others ...

UNIVERSAL'S PROFITS SOAR EVEN AS PHYSICAL MEDIA CONTINUES TO FALL

Lot of great details in this musicbusinessworldwide feature on the corporate fortunes of UMG (Universal Music Group), one of the big 3 that accounts for a combined 80% of the global music industry's revenues...

• UMG's streaming revenues are greater than Spotify's total revenues, a reminder of the diversity within a market dominated by bug names like Spotify, YouTube and Apple, but with plenty more such as Amazon and Deezer.
• Overall revenues are rising despite continuing steep falls in physical media revenues.
• Rock music is very much secondary to rap/rnb/urban for sales (this goes back about a decade)

There's lots of business terms/abbreviations here:

• YoY = year-on-year (eg 2018 profits up on 2017's)
• Q4 = Quarter 4 (businesses publish reports on revenues, profits, losses every 3 months ... every quarter

If you were to ask Sir Lucian Grainge what his favorite genre of music is right now, you’d have to guess he’d say hip-hop.
According to Vivendi, Universal Music Group’s five biggest revenue-generating artists in the first nine months of this year were: (i) Drake; (ii) Post Malone; (iii) Kendrick Lamar; (iv) XXXTentacion; and (v) Migos.
These acts drove UMG’s recorded music sales in the first nine months of 2018 to an all-time high of €3.28bn ($3.93bn), up 10.2% YoY at constant currency.

Remember that the music industry constantly moans about piracy and the streaming platforms paying too little per stream ... yet profits are increasing overall.

HOW PROFITS BEGAN RISING AGAIN AFTER FALLING EVERY YEAR FROM 1999-2011

After years of falling from their 1999 peak, the industry (not just UMG) starting growing again in 2012, as this 2013 report highlights:

The music industry, the first media business to be consumed by the digital revolution, said on Tuesday that its global sales rose last year for the first time since 1999, raising hopes that a long-sought recovery might have begun.
The increase, of 0.3 percent, was tiny, and the total revenue, $16.5 billion, was a far cry from the $38 billion that the industry took in at its peak more than a decade ago. Still, even if it is not time for the record companies to party like it’s 1999, the figures, reported Tuesday by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, provide significant encouragement.
“It’s clear that 2012 saw the global recording industry moving onto the road to recovery,” said Frances Moore, chief executive of the federation, which is based in London. “There’s a palpable buzz in the air that I haven’t felt for a long time.”For years, the music industry’s decline looked terminal, with the record companies seemingly unable to come up with digital business models that could compete with the lure of online piracy. Last year, however, digital sales and other new sources of revenue grew significantly enough to offset the continuing decline in CD sales.

UNIVERSAL'S GRIP TIGHTENS AS THEY SIGN UP TAYLOR SWIFT
Universal just tightened its grip on the industry with the signing of Taylor Swift, though they agreed to give her ownership of the masters of all recorded music, a big change from usual industry practice, and to pass money from sale of its shares in Spotify to its artists.

Taylor Swift leaves lifelong label to sign with Universal Music Group

More details: Taylor Swift strikes a blow for fellow artists as digital revenues soar

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/24/taylor-swift-blow-fellow-artists-streaming-revenues-soar-universal-spotify?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

https://www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/20648/danny-michel-opens-up-about-reality-being-musician

$44.99 sales, including $0.003 per Spotify stream, for a Canadian artist's top 10 hit (Canada charts and figures)

New campaign to get Spotify etc to tag Indie artists and boost the 19.55% global share not taken by the big 3.

https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/11/spotify-apple-music-urged-to-label-indie-music.html

https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/11/the-music-business-is-about-more-than-just-the-big-three.html

Music biz revenues grew in 2017+2018 as streaming booms.

Universal expanding in China/Asia.

Metallica launch Enter Night Pilsner, building on whiskey (Rolling Stone).
They even released a 'making of' video! (Blabbermouth)

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/jobs/spotify-manager-artist-label-marketing-us/

Physical sales so reduced, a Jan 2019 #1 only had 823 album sales!!!

Average Spotify user only paying 5.5o, and falling, as global rollout in poorer countries builds and family plans too.

https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2019/01/record-labels-evolve-to-stay-relevant-in-the-streaming-era-musonomics-report.html

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/features/8492870/spotify-direct-to-artist-tools-label-territory

https://www.newstatesman.com/2019/01/is-the-music-industry-dead

APPLE Platoon record label

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/apple-just-bought-a-company-that-acts-like-a-record-label-why-774480/

https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2019/01/5-2019-music-industry-predictions.html