Streaming
Comparing “For Artists” features on music streaming platforms
May 23 2023

Today’s music streaming platforms are increasingly trying to position their offerings as “artist-friendly.” But what does that phrase actually mean — and who’s doing it right?

Artists
Starter Pack: Music and brand partnerships
April 03 2023

Securing an endorsement deal is no longer a matter of “selling out”; for many artists, it’s a matter of survival.

Gaming
The Score: Mapping Epic Games’ future music strategy
March 28 2023

It took nearly one whole year for the independent music community to see some initial fruits from Epic Games’ acquisition of Bandcamp.

Starter Packs
Starter Pack: Digital music curation
March 20 2023

If the music industry is an orchestra, curation is like its conductor — arranging and guiding otherwise disparate artists, scenes, and styles into a dynamic, narrative whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Starter Packs
Starter Pack: Music in virtual worlds
March 06 2023

Music’s potential in virtual worlds is much more than just a game.

Starter Packs
Starter Pack: Digital music marketing
February 20 2023

In today’s crowded landscape, the best moat you can invest in as an artist is a strong, memorable brand — which comes downstream of good marketing.

Artificial intelligence
Temp check: AI sentiment across the music industry
February 16 2023

Understand how music-industry stakeholders are currently leveraging and thinking about creative AI, including cross-industry patterns in AI-related needs and sentiments.

Starter Packs
Starter Pack: New music communities
February 06 2023

The concept of community has risen to a new level of prominence in the last few years as a critical source of social and commercial resilience in artists’ careers.

Web3
New pathways: Analyzing music NFT release strategies from underrepresented genres
October 25 2022

We interviewed nearly 20 different artists and community leaders from underrepresented genres in Web3, to learn about the role of genre in shaping long-term branding strategies as well as artist sentiment around the technology.

Artists
The artist team, today & tomorrow: Takeaways from W&M Summer School 2022
September 09 2022

A recap of how we designed the latest iteration of the W&M Academy, and the main themes that our speakers shared with our community.

Web3
Music NFT sales in 2021: What we learned
May 06 2022

Over the last month, several contributors in the Water & Music community collaborated to analyze music NFT market dynamics, based on data from our members-only music NFT database. This report is the result — an in-depth analysis of 2021 music NFT sales by artist genre, platform/protocol, and label affiliation, covering over $86M worth of revenue, as well as a qualitative discussion of popular and emerging forms of utility that have emerged around the format in the last year.

Creators
The creator economy is growing much faster than music streaming
November 03 2021