Navigating the Modern Melody: Rising Challenges for Aspiring Artists with Today’s Technology

December 8, 2023

In the digital era, artists must navigate a transformed music industry, shifting from traditional reliance on record and ticket sales to a challenging demand for innovation in mass media and a struggle to profit.

In the 1970s to 80s vinyl led sales steadily worth over 50% of the market until peaking in 1999 with $40 billion in sales, equal to $72 million with today’s inflation.

That year, according to Mark Rogowsky for Forbes, 600 million customers spent $64 on average on records when an average album cost ten dollars.

Tape cassettes premiered in 1982 and CDs the year later. According to figures from Music Business Research, total CD sales earned $14 billion in the year 2000 yet fell under $4 billion in 2013 as digital album downloads dropped also.

Touring, once lucrative, has also faced new complexities as diminished record sales elevate live performances' importance. Rising production costs, logistical challenges, and pandemic effects complicated live appearances, having online concerts and hence new kinds of ticketing.

Before the internet, a study from the University of Chicago Press Journals said $15 bundled about 12 songs on a CD when groups relied on labels to be heard. Any artists can now release longer digital albums, even on their own, but won’t see nearly those same returns.

Based on 2023 mid-year data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) music revenues saw record highs, being up 9.3% and representing $8.4 billion, but largely from paid subscription services.

The platforms with these services alone generate 84% of all recorded music revenue, the number of paid subscriptions more than doubling in the last five years.

Spotify alone reports 226 million premium subscribers, costing $11 monthly and earning $30 billion yearly from these customers alone. However, in an analysis by The Ringer artists have seen lower “pay-per-stream” rates despite the platform’s growth.

Each stream on Spotify earns a mere $0.00318, Apple Music paying $0.008 and YouTube Music only $0.002. An artist on Spotify would need over 330,000 signed streams monthly to make an average minimum wage, as reported by VIRPP, a platform that aids and informs up-and-coming artists.

Where free subscripts rely on advertising, creators can see a cut when songs are played between ads. However, this cut is split between all artists who were played in the segment.

Despite fluctuating trends, physical music has made a resurgence. In 2022, 33 million CDs were sold with 41 million vinyl records, making up 70% of the physical music market, earning $1.2 billion. Vinyl had not led the physical music market since 1987.

However, seeking to produce a vinyl album can prove profitable but risky amid costs outlined by John Zozzaro, the founder and president of MediaTech Ventures.

In Zozzaro’s model, recording and creating 5,000 albums could reach $34,000 with studio space and musicians, album art, printing, and promotion or marketing costs. If each were priced at $15, over 2,000 albums would have to sell to break even, making only $8.25 back per album if all were sold, a total return of 55%.

Artists largely rely on producers and labels or gauge the practicality of such costs if on their own, showing a change from the traditional release and profit now beginning digitally and working up to vinyl.

Such changes for ease of releasing online have created massive communities of creators, changing the dynamic of the industry's diversity to one of online content.

Will Cullen, a graduate of Belmont University in Nashville, has gained 3.5 million TikTok followers by posting videos spontaneously playing strangers’ requests on his guitar while doing routine livestreams singing and answering questions.

While producing his music, Cullen found he had to embrace other ways to promote himself beyond gigs and school.

“At first, TikTok allowed me to release samples of what I was working on and gain some recognition before I put anything out. It just followed my journey.” Cullen said. “When I started going out and really meeting people and using the videos to show my personality, too, I think it connected to a lot of people and they could have fun like I was.

While allowing new ways to connect to artists and follow specific interests, Cullen noted how it can also be intimidating having to stick out.

“Starting in Nashville, the majority of people around me were so talented and want to get where I want to go, too. Everyone has social media now and I really had to find a way to be identifiable among all the noise and try to keep enjoying that.”

Another DJ from Chicago, John Summit, saw his song “Where You Are” become viral on TikTok before its official release, gaining nearly 73 million streams since March.

Summit began performing in a college bar, in 2020 releasing “Deep End” which remained electronic music and sale platform Beatport’s longest-running number-one song of the year until being surpassed in popularity by his recent social media hit.

When putting music on major platforms, growing artists are still not completely alone. Both Spotify and Apple Music’s algorithms curate playlists for rising artists regardless of social media and labels.

However, according to a 2022 report by Music Business Worldwide using Spotify’s Loud & Clear “popularity calculator” site to analyze its content, an “ocean of music” has arisen in the 8 million artists and more than 82 million tracks on the platform.

Calculations revealed that 80% of Spotify creators have under 50 monthly listeners while only 7% of those artists had over 1,000. 67% of the artists had fewer than ten released tracks.

Also, about 79% of tracks have been played fewer than 5000 times. Under the previous “pay-per-stream” estimation, this would indicate a large majority of artists have earned less than $16 on their content.

Furthermore, the growth of pirated music, algorithms, and the use of AI to generate music have created more deficiencies in artist profit, authenticity and accreditation.

With little regulation of AI, whose programming draws exclusively from internet sources, can now form full songs, and albums, and is in the beginnings of creating full video productions.

In many cases, artists’ songs have been sampled by these entities with little ability to reference them. Pirating creates an inaccurate gauge of streaming numbers, often externally favoring large artists who don’t rely on paying customers.

Whereas some may be streamed too few times, others are also streamed and downloaded unfairly, allowing artists to be ripped off by digitization. Labels provide artists with the support of teams that monitor copyright among many services.

For these reasons, the role of marketing has also significantly increased, causing smaller artists to utilize other mediums to promote, hire marketing agencies, or rely on support from record labels.

A study from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) revealed the costs of full-fledged marketing campaigns, noting how record labels invest over $5.8 billion every year in marketing.

To connect an artist with major music markets, labels can spend from $500,00 and $2 million since professional video products alone can run between $50,000 and $300,000. Placing ads on TV, radio, billboards, or magazines can go up to $700,000.

Also, Spotify’s Marque tool promises to deliver “10x More Listeners Per Dollar Than Social Ads, on Average” for artists who pay for the service by incorporating ads into social media and tracking reception.

However, Rolling Stone noted how this tool mostly favors artists and labels who can afford high investments, again using algorithms to continue a “pay-for-play” dynamic.

Artists lacking such support must navigate these costs and climates on their own, operating without labels still proving to be possible and on a growing number of occasions— a preference.

In 2016, the predominant creator Frank Ocean opted for independence from Def Jam Recordings, being reported by Forbes to have more than doubled Ocean’s profit since Blonde, his last release.

“I need to know how many records I’ve sold, how many album equivalents from streaming, which territories are playing my music more than others, because it helps me in conversations about where we’re gonna be playing shows, or where I might open a retail location, like a pop-up store or something,” Ocean said to the New York Times.

Also, with the viral dynamic of the internet, lots of music can fall victim to fads and trends also thanks to algorithms, quickly being overplayed or exhausted, but also calling back classics.

Following its appearance in the popular Netflix show Stranger Things among many other classic hits, Kate Hill’s “Running Up That Hill” from 1985 increased in streams by 9,900% in 2022. To Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Kate Bush expressed her gratitude and surprise.

“It’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this,” said Bush. “I mean, the whole world’s gone mad.”

A year later, in May of 2023, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Bush who was received by co-creator Big Boi.

Altogether, creators who attempt to break into the music industry today face a wide horizon of new hurdles, many of which are making the music business less profitable.

In recent reports, Spotify plans to continue paying decreasing royalties, and AI continues to be debated, hopefully soon meeting regulations to protect creators.  Platforms like VIPP continue to aid artists, providing counsel and tools to launch, social media being a driving force in recognition.

In the face of a transformative music business, artists stand at a critical juncture, navigating options that extend into the digital realm. Innovation now an anthem, it harmonizes with the spirit of musicians determined to adapt, thrive, and transcend the challenges of their landscape, but hopefully being made more fair in the near future.