Judging by the fact that the last decade in the music industry was characterized by tumult and revolution in every sector, the year ahead will be no different — and we already have plenty of clues as to where and how that will play out. As tech companies, record labels, artists, songwriters, and the industry’s other players brace themselves for highly anticipated government decisions on copyright infringement and radio royalties, they’re also holding a number of other slow-burning matters in the backs of their heads.
Below are Rolling Stone‘s predictions for what some of the biggest headlines of 2020 will look like.
The frenzy for data will be lucrative — for some
If there’s been one favorite industry buzzword of late, it’s “data” — in all its broad, often-wrongly-employed glory. Last year, music-streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple took their artist-facing data analytics platforms up a notch, boasting about how such platforms can offer an unprecedented degree of understanding about one’s own audience. But they are not the only ones in the space; a number of third-party data companies offer viable alternatives for artists to glean insights into touring, marketing, and demographic data.
Raw data, on its own, offers very little for most people — which is why these platforms that can cut the data the right way have so much intrinsic worth (and also why many record labels are quickly shoring up on data scientists and programmers to bolster their traditional sales and A&R teams). Right now, the fee for accessing these kinds of analytics can be anywhere from $0 to around $2,000 a year. That breadth of range won’t last for long. As the streaming services begin to explore revenue growth that doesn’t depend on the fickle metrics of subscriber figures and ad buys, the currently-free data offerings they provide to artists will likely be one of the first places they look. When that happens, it’ll be a question of who does the spending, and who gets to stay around to do the selling.
While large concert companies are busy exploring the answers to those questions with new tech developments such as loyalty-based discounts and real-time texts, artists have barely scratched the surface. For most artists — from indie acts to the bright-burning supernovas — the main methods of communication with fans over the last decade have been social media (free, but limiting) and concerts (expensive, impersonal, similarly limiting). In the technologically sophisticated era of Web 3.0, that’s due for an overhaul, and soon. Some musicians are newly toying with startups that allow direct artist-to-fan messaging; others are planning fundraisers on Kickstarter, sending subscriber-only newsletters on Patreon, and raising engagement (and modest sums of money) via other means. What’s next? Streaming’s buffet-style business model has torn down the barriers between fans and music; the innovation that finally brings fans and musicians together will be just as monumental. — A.X.W
Streaming will have to face the (fake) music
Just two weeks into the year, the music industry already has its hands full with a curious new scandal: Music fans across the internet are reporting that someone is hacking their accounts and looping French Montana songs. French himself blames 50 Cent — who the rapper says is buying the fake streams and framing him — but the real source has not been confirmed. Though it concerns an entirely different kind of streaming fraud, the situation brings forth déjà vu to January 2019 when music fans found unreleased SZA and Beyoncé tracks uploaded under artist accounts named “Sister Solana” and “Queen Carter.” And the odd Montana dispute also bears similarity to a brewing controversy in country music right now, in which hundreds of artists are seeing their music re-uploaded under fake accounts not in their control.
What is the extent of streaming’s fake music problem? It’s increasingly clear that music-streaming services aren’t vulnerable only to one kind of fraud, but a cornucopia of ways that malicious actors can game the platforms for revenue, exposure, or just simple attention. While major players in music signed a lip-service group pledge last summer to combat fake streams, they’ll have to confront the matter in earnest if this level of publicized malfeasance continues.