SHERYAR MALIK

Music publication has changed massively throughout the years, since the old forms of marketing, sales, and the broader structure as a whole has changed with the rise of the digital age. People are consuming more music than ever and that means that the markets have adapted their structures in an effort to keep the cash flow coming in. Music publishers have also adapted to the alternative forms of music consumption, namely by making use of popular music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. This decentralization of music publishing has led to the rise of more underground and unknown artists, who bring with them indie music publishers offering new opportunities to break into the mainstream. This goes against previously centralized music publishers, who dominated the market and had more control over what audiences would hear. By the tracking of the history of music publication and examining the ever-changing market, we can see how the economics and marketing of popular music have adapted to the digital landscape, giving rise to indie publishers and alternative forms of music that would previously not be heard.

To first understand what the biggest structural change to the music publication industry is, we must first look at the economic model of music publication and how it has transformed through the years. The old avenue of money-making in the music industry was primarily done through material record sales and buying CDs and cassettes, eventually shifting to downloading songs through virtual means, to what we observe today with the rise of music streaming platforms. Artists, labels, and the industry as a whole realized they couldn’t make any serious profit by selling an actual physical album anymore, so this shift was necessary to maintain this industry as a whole. In “Economics of Music Publishing,” Ruth Towse delves deeper into how this industry makes money, accounting for the shifts necessitated by modernization. The article delves into the previous and long-sustained models of publications and labels exploiting the artist directly. In response to the change into newer models Towse writes, “Rather than leading entrepreneurially (the current view of dynamism in the creative industries), publishers ‘followed the money’ and adapted their business models only when new streams of income from new forms of exploitation through sound recording, broadcasting, and film became available as a result of exogenous technical progress”(Towse). From this explanation we can gather that massive companies and publishers do not have an active role in creating new forms of monetization within the industry, rather they assess where the markets are shifting and seek to “adapt”. In other words, digitalization controls the markets, as opposed to the markets controlling digitalization.

Looking at a specific artist and their label can be helpful. By looking at a particular case of an artist’s breaking through the mainstream, we can begin to understand the effects of decentralization in music publication and how it can affect modern culture. As of October 2024, the artist Bladee has 2.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, a popular streaming platform. His music is described as cloud rap. I implore those reading this essay to listen to a track or two, as the uniqueness of his music truly can’t be overstated. What’s interesting is how these unique styles can permeate across borders, cultures, and a potentially already-dominated market. Bladee’s label is called Year0001, the site features a small statement in the about section saying, “YEAR0001 is a multidisciplinary record label, management and creative studio founded in Stockholm in 2015. Our vision is to act as an independent incubator active in the landscape of music, culture, fashion and technology. We believe in using transparency and co-creation to achieve a more sustainable landscape for our artists and creators”(Year001). This means that, as of now, the label has been active for around 9 years, which is a relatively short time considering the success of Bladee and their other artists like Ecco2k and Thaiboi Digital. One thing that stands out about their website is the informality of the page. I compared it to “Universal Music Group’s” website and saw a stark difference in layout, style, and formality. Universal Music Group is mentioned here to juxtapose an indie label with a large multibillion-dollar label. Marketing can tie in with these pages, but I think it boils down to the music and how much it can grasp the audience’s attention. There should be no illusion that consumers check out the website of a specific artist’s label; however, I think that the minimalist style of Year0001’s page reflects the duality of this industry. Universal Music Group splatters its front page with popular mainstream artists like Ice Spice, The Weeknd, and Kendrick Lamar while Year0001’s page goes for a more aesthetic and trippier presentation, putting the artists deeper into the page. It presents a dichotomy from the big publishers ethos style marketing versus the independent publishers who speak more to aesthetics and style.

One important aspect of Year0001 is that much of its initial success came from the Swedish rapper Yung Lean. Yung Lean organically contributed to the marketing and growth of his label which was largely unknown before, according to an article by Amber Horsburgh from 2017 titled “Yung Lean- A Case Study in Marketing Budgets for Hip-Hop Artists”. One way that Yung Lean was able to boost his labels success was collaborative projects with other artists on the label. These collaborative tracks form differently than mainstream ways of collaboration, where artists get their labels to pay for features. The Year0001 model started out with a group of friends who all made music. Since Yung Lean was the most indie-popular artist amongst them, he has collaborated with members from his label countless times. As to the economics of these collaborations, I’m not at liberty to say, still this conservative marketing and spending style makes it more practical for independent artists and labels alike to grow their brands. In reference to the label specifically, it mainly seems to bolster Swedish cloud rappers like Yung Lean and Bladee. This creates another defining binary between independent and corporate music publishers; the previously discussed corporate economic model of music publishing is for mass growth, accumulation of rising artists, and heavy marketing campaigns. In Year001’s case, they opt for relatability, community, and arguably more artistic representation.

Towse’s article discusses the dominating companies in the industry, naming Sony, Universal, and Warner. I find it crucial to look at how, despite the rise of independent publications and artists, there are levels of monopolization and influence on who we might be pushed to listen to, subliminally or not. These companies make their money specifically through royalties, performing rights, and of course, through digital avenues be that streaming or buying music online. I think many times we think that social media is the sole driver for promoting an artist’s music, but we can forget the multiplicity of ways in which music can be consumed. Take movies and TV shows for example, where artists can have their songs in popular media beyond just streaming something on Spotify. Multi-billion-dollar companies have connections and access to revenues that independent publications never could. The artists and labels can get paid exorbitantly for the ways in which their music is utilized in commercials, movies, and shows. It also goes without saying that the capital of these companies and artists can largely impact the success of an album or single.

The question becomes how does this dominance affect smaller music publishers and artists? Thankfully, due to the decentralization of streaming markets and social media apps like TikTok, that allow for cheaper marketing, there is a viable market share for those up and coming. Despite this, there have been a number of smaller labels that were consolidated and merged with powerhouse music publishers like Warner and Sony. This is certainly harmful to independent publishers due to the nature of how monopolies dominate markets.  Still, I think there has been significant progress in the publishing field. In “From Music Publishing to MP3,” Reebee Garofalo describes the globalization of American artists contributing to a sort of cultural imperialism in music through capital. This has now become flipped since a Swedish artist like Bladee has made significant waves and contributions to cloud rap culture both in America and Sweden. There have always been alternative artists and labels who push for a more unique and expressive way of making music. Collaborations come to fruition through genuine means, as opposed to calculated marketing efforts seeking to maximize streams and sales.

Independent publication is important to bolster freedom and independence from billion-dollar conglomerates and companies that prioritize financial gain. This isn’t to say that smaller labels like Year0001 do not or cannot make money, rather to examine how these shifts in the economic and marketing models contribute to a more decentralized culture. Consumers, namely through Spotify and TikTok, now have more freedom than ever to discover what sorts of music they like and is important to them. Through the comparison of independent versus conglomerate labels, it becomes clearer what each lacks, as well as how capital can influence markets and culture as a whole. Markets will always shift or transform and as we continue full speed into a digital world. I believe that many consumers will appreciate an authentic and unfiltered version of media and art.

Works Cited

Garofalo, Reebee. “From Music Publishing to MP3: Music and Industry in the Twentieth Century.” American Music, vol. 17, no. 3, 1999, pp. 318–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3052666. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.

Horsburgh, Amber. “Yung Lean – a Case Study in Marketing Budgets for Hip-Hop Artists.” Medium, 25 Mar. 2021, amberhorsburgh.medium.com/yung-lean-a-case-study-in-marketing-budgets-for-hip-hop-artists-101d30c7223.

Towse, R. Economics of music publishing: copyright and the market. J Cult Econ 41, 403–420 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-016-9268-7

Universal Music Group, https://www.universalmusic.com/. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024

YEAR0001, year0001.com/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.