The New Music Business

7/22/2016

Commentary and Analysis by Mitch Santell
Producer and Co-Founder

The New Music Business is here. Are you having fun yet? Now this is just my opinion based on my own experience. The shift from Vinyl to CDs was major with millions of listeners investing in their own collections. Then came the world of digital down loads. Remember a little service called NAPSTER? Now that really shook things up. Napster was followed with the iTunes's music store. It was an attempt by Steve Jobs to create a delivery system that could easily connect the consumer, the artist and the label. Here we are (let us fast forward) in 2016 and streaming (now all the rage) is once again disrupting the music business.

The biggest shift of all is pay to play. What does this really mean? It means that who ever has the deepest pockets is going to get the most action.

As an internet radio station we have to look at the latest trends in technology, distribution and audience taste. There is a real division between the world of streaming and the world of physical product. While the online streaming services battle it out, there is also a resurgence in vinyl releases!

There are two companies that are making a real difference in the life of an artist, producer and manager. No, I was not paid for these endorsements and I am simply sharing what I am seeing in the market place.

The first company is Kobalt Music. This company is really disrupting how the business works and makes a compelling argument for new and established artists to join them.

This was something of interest that I found on the Kobalt web site:

Kobalt Music Publishing, Kobalt Label Services and Kobalt Neighbouring Rights divisions each offer a modern alternative to the traditional music business model, empowering creators with flexible contracts, ownership, control, and total transparency.

We represent over 8,000 artists and songwriters, 600,000 songs and 500 publishing companies, servicing our clients with global licensing management, works and rights distribution, royalty collection and processing, online data and royalty statements, creative services, synch & brand partnerships, record release management and marketing.

More here: http://www.kobaltmusic.com/page-about.php

The second company that has peaked my interest was PhonoFile. The company is outside the USA but seems to have a bit of global pull in my opinion.

From their website:

Phonofile works world wide with delivering music to all important digital music stores like iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Wimp, Google, Beatport, Juno Download, Traxsource and other niche and DJ stores.Outside of the main offices in the Nordic countries, Phonofile also works with music from Serbia/Balkan, Balticum, Ghana, South Africa, the Arabic world and for some selected labels in the US and the UK.

It will be interesting to see how the shake out occurs as more tradition labels either are folded, consolidate with others and/or create new distribution venues.