How streaming impacts music business success

Ian Ramage is Abbey Road Institute’s music business lecturer. For the past 35 years, he’s worked with artists and labels in marketing, managing, A&R and publishing. Ian is a veritable fountain of information on how this industry works, and shares why change can be a good thing…

Reasons to be cheerful

There are so many playlists and recommendations for music lovers to choose from – The daily iTunes chart, Spotify’s ‘New Music Friday,’ just to name a few.

This offers new artists an enormous opportunity: streaming means that acts can monetise a successful track independently, driven by the capacity of music to spread online.

Streaming services are a hybrid of two traditional music models: buying music, and listening to it on the radio. Thank to streaming, we now have a climate in which singles can have a far greater life-span (think months instead of weeks) than ever before.

The times they are a-changin’…

Streaming services are a hybrid of two traditional music models: buying music, and listening to it on the radio. Thank to streaming, we now have a climate in which singles can have a far greater life-span (think months instead of weeks) than ever before.

Previously an artist would first have to create an entire album. Once that was done, there would be a big marketing push to get individual songs to burn up the radio charts. The hope was that these singles would shine a light on the associated album, and convince fans to buy it.

Let’s look at the UK’s most recent (March 30th) Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart .Only one artist – George Ezra – features in the top 10 of both.

In the 80s, 90s, and 00s, you would generally find the same artists on both the Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart; but streaming’s impact on published music charts has been profound. 

More and more, singles and albums are becoming quite distinct from one another. Never has the spirit of evolution – and therefore opportunity – been better for our graduates!

KEEPING UP

The speed of change our industry is witnessing is just one of the many reasons that working with students on the Music Business and Management module at Abbey Road Institute is so much fun.

We take pride in providing an up-to-the-minute explanation of what is actually going on in the real world of the music industry through specialist guests we invite to the institute – lawyers, marketing directors, finance experts, artist/producer managers, and media entrepreneurs.

For more information, check out our Advanced Diploma and Music Production and Sound Engineering course or contact us for further advice.