Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Music Industry
May 2020
Lindsey Geoghegan
State University of New York at Oneonta
MUSC 209 – Record Labels in Pop Culture
Professor Nancy Tarr
New ways for artists to
reach their audiences
• Any one can livestream on apps like Instagram,
Facebook, Tik Tok and many others
• Artists have been just simply participating as
well as getting creative with their streams
• And now, because touring, the music industry’s
biggest cash flow is at a halt for the time being
• Artists are now reaching their fans in ways they
never would have
• But COVID-19 wasn’t the cause for this, there
have been artists who were exploring new
methods before we were stuck at home
Unconventional
Concerts
• In a clever feat, EDM producer,
Marshmello, hosted an unconventional
live concert in February of 2019
• The event took place inside of the
popular video game “Fornite”
• The stream had joined 10.7 million
viewers together to see his set
• To put it in perspective, Woodstock had
somewhere between 400,000-500,000
people attend
• Marshmello’s concert had over 20 times
that amount
• In the same vein as Marshmello, last
week, musical duo, 100 gecs put on a
festival inside a Minecraft server
• The event was called ‘Square Garden’
• 100 gecs streamed the event on their
YouTube page and website
• All proceeds went to the hunger-
relief nonprofit, Feeding America.
• Global Citizen and many artists
have joined to raise money for the
World Health Organization
through livestreams and television
programs.
• Disney aired The Disney Family
Singalong which benefitted
Feeding America
My Thoughts
• In the months to come, I think the virtual festival trend and livestreams
will continue to grow, seeing as the shows people were planning on
attending are currently delayed, postponed, and even cancelled.
• The emphasis we’ve placed on livestreaming in the past month leads
me to believe that it will continue, now that artists have had an
opportunity to try it
• Videos, especially live ones, are particularly important in connecting
with audiences
• Watching a recording of an artist perform gives you the feeling of
wanting to be there
• According to Vimeo, 67 percent of viewers are more likely to buy a
ticket to a concert after watching a live video of that event or a similar
one
• Once touring starts again, I think it will be more successful than it was
before, but artists will always have an audience on livestreams as well
Artificial Intelligence
• This has been one of the leading topics in our class so far
• We have seen more and more companies taking advantage of AI in the past years
• According to the McKinsey Global Institute, by 2030, 70% of companies will have
adopted at least one of the five AI technologies they investigated.
• The five are:
• Computer Vision
• Natural Language
• Virtual Assistants
• Robotic Process Automation
• Advanced Machine Learning
• As more companies see the opportunities in AI, they will embrace multiple, if not
all, of its aspects
• Because of the insight and support AI delivers, we will make choices that are
more efficient and effective
• AI furthers growth and innovation which will undoubtedly reformat the creative
process in all businesses, especially the music industry.
An expert’s opinion
• A pioneer in the Music Industry is Scott Cohen
• Scott founded The Orchard in 1997 with Richard
Gotteher (co-founder of Sire Records), after
being denied by most label executives
• According to their website, The Orchard is “the
industry’s leading independent distributor and
label services company… The Orchard
empowers artists and labels to connect with
fans across the globe”
• The company is a distinguished innovative
music and video distribution company that was
fully acquired by Sony in 2015 for $200M
AI’s impact
Cohen used the example of Luis Fonsi and his song ‘Despacito’ as
well as the South Korean boy band, BTS.
Cohen’s point is that a genre-led world, these artist are just labeled
as ‘World Music’
AI has been aiding with the A&R process. Warner Music Group
acquired a start-up that “uses an algorithm to review social,
streaming and touring data to find promising talent.”
Predictions
AI has already started
AI will progress until
learning about what we
genre either becomes
listen to through mood
an archaic term or is
or feeling instead of
reinvented to mean
songs that sounds the
something new
same.