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
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."
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/
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/
