In what was a turbulent year for all those involved in the music industry this past year, the music industry review 2020 gives an overview of key industry changes, the biggest records, tips 2021, interviews, and music documentaries to watch.
The main sections and headlines of Frukt’s music industry review 2020 are:
- Music industry trends – in a turbulent year, how did the music industry react and evolve
- Music/technology convergence
- Livestreaming live shows wasn’t a 2020 invention, but borne out of lockdown necessity, it evolved at lightspeed to become a fully-fledged monetised sector of the music industry
- The worlds of music and gaming edged ever closer with people stuck at home. More than 12m people watched Travis Scott in Fortnite, K-pop superstars Blackpink entered the realms of PUBG, Lil Nas X announced his return to 33m players in Roblox, while Stormzy made a cameo in Watch Dogs Legion
- An increased focus on VR and AR technology saw live shows for the likes of Liam Gallagher and Elrow with full VR functionality for users
- Music listenership is increasingly spreading over platforms. Tik Tok became an ever-more lucrative platform, with 70 artists (including 24KGoldn and Fousheé) breaking on the platform now having been signed to major labels
- With ever-more fragmented music discovery, tools to help the industry monitor new buzz acts feel increasingly essential, and AI-enhanced music scouting software is growing in clout
- Streaming and the changing global music market
- Streaming has continued to flourish for labels, with subscriptions predicted to exceed 450m by the year-end, a 25% year-on-year increase
- The growing streaming industry is helping populous developing music markets monetise and grow fast – China is now the seventh largest global music market, up 16% year-on-year
- With music markets expanding, an increasing number of regional stars are breaking through to wider global audiences. Latin pop/reggaeton (Latin America) K-pop (Korea) and afrobeats (Nigeria) have all boomed from a local vibe to become global pop forces
- Spotify is perhaps most synonymous with music streaming, but YouTube remains the most used worldwide music discovery tool, with over 2bn monthly active users every month (over six times more than Spotify)
- Social injustice in the industry
- While the music industry has been hugely driven by Black artists since its inception, it’s often not rewarded this talent fairly. While of course the situation wasn’t close to being remedied during 2020, there were positive moves by the industry, with major record labels investing in large-scale social justice funds
- Music/technology convergence
- Essential records from 2020 – which records had people listening on repeat?
- 2021: new artists to watch for – who is going to bring the fire in 2021…
- Industry review: music remains as important as ever
- Many artists had a lot more time to create. There has been no shortage of new music coming out in 2020; in fact, the MD of Universal Music International in Germany, Ulf Zick said, “We’ve released more music this year than ever, and our release schedule for next year is full.”
- Music streaming has been the biggest growth driver for the recorded music industry in recent years. Revenues from streaming subscriptions account for more than half of the record business globally, increasing further by the year. Surprisingly though, it’s not the only growth driver of the future – more growth may come from social media, gaming and livestreaming
- Music streaming in the UK has generated overn £1bn in revenue with 114bn music streams in the last year alone, but artists can receive as little as 13% of this income
- 2020: a view – so what do we make of it all?
- 2020’s best music documentaries – the feature lengths to keep you entertained
Click here to read the music industry review 2020 in full.
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