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Surprise, surprise… Major label artists are dominating Spotify’s playlists

First shared by @seaninsound in #music-streaming

Inclusion on a DSP’s official playlist has become one of the critical markers of success in the streaming age. A well-timed playlist feature can turbo boost an artist’s career to the extent that some playlists have developed their own brand identities and have become widely known as star-makers, even outside of a given platform. Like many facets of streaming economics, however, the process of being included on these playlists is far from egalitarian.

On #music-streaming, we discussed a study from Music Tomorrow’s Julie Knibbe (who has written for Water & Music in the past about music and data). In this piece, Julie analyzed historical data on the label affiliation of the artists which have been included in one of Spotify’s most popular playlists. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her research revealed that major-label artists dominate many of Spotify’s playlists including Rap Caviar, New Music Friday, and Pop Rising. Critics have suspected favoritism for major labels from Spotify in the past, and (as Julie notes in her analysis) there is no denying that they have more resources available to craft pitches and cultivate relationships with the platform’s tastemakers.

One artist from the Water & Music community noted:

“The amount of power the editorial staff has is incredible. It sucks how closely my sense of success is tied to being included in editorial playlists.”
— @houndtrack

Coupled with the fact that many of Spotify’s most influential playlists are updated on an entirely random cadence, artists often won’t have an idea of how long their playlist-induced listenership boost will last. The psychological effect of being added and removed from editorials, seemingly at random, can be turbulent for artists. From that perspective, playlisting can become a wholly unpredictable and sometimes unreachable metric for success.

While awareness campaigns pour a great deal of energy and enthusiasm into how streaming services impact artists’ income, it’s essential that we also analyze our music discovery methods and the ways they are subject to the (sometimes adverse) effects of platformization.

If you’re interested in how emerging technologies like Web3 can usher in alternative (and potentially more egalitarian) forms of music discovery and online curation, head over to our curation thread to join the conversation.

Further reading: Gen Z’s take on new music discovery

Are “10k NFT projects” the new IPOs?

First shared by @BlackDave in #web3

On #web3, we discussed an interesting distinction between two types of music NFT projects:

“Something I’ve noticed in the music NFT sphere is that all of the 10K music projects so far (ghost of frank dukes, wvrpsound, squad of knights, chillrx, etc) have been created by folks with music industry experience while those without traditional industry experience don’t seem to be digging in on creating a 10K music (community) project, but continue to release individual/unique music. Any thoughts on why that is?”
– @BlackDave

If you haven’t heard this term before, a “10k project” (not to be confused with the indie label 10K Projects) is a term for an NFT drop where ten thousand NFTs are released at once, often taking some form of avataresque visual art. These projects often have ambitious (and sometimes outlandish) roadmaps and will focus on providing access to a community as one the primary benefits offered to collectors. In contrast, individual artists will drop bespoke, limited-run NFT projects often centered around music rather than any particular visual component.

As @houndtrack observes, music NFT projects will often vary dramatically in the scale of their ambitions. While many independent artists will experiment with releasing a limited run of NFTs to fundraise for other parts of their career (like touring or music videos) or to make ends meet, teams of strategists and industry professionals develop 10k projects often as a first step in an ambitious attempt at launching a Web3 media empire:

“To me it seems like the 10k strategy is a way to raise funds for a company. Industry peeps are probably more experienced with that domain and interested in launching something big. Whereas individual artists aren’t really trying to start companies (yet)

10k pfp is the new IPO”
– @houndtrack

@cheriehu also observed that the gulf between these kinds of projects could hint at a broader, philosophical uncertainty around what Web3 will become: the next big, buzzy digital revolution or a set of foundational tools capable of course-correcting some of the more negative aspects of digital economies:

“i think this hits the nail on the head. stems from a fundamental difference in perspective on whether “the point” of web3 is to maximize virality and social shareability, or to draw attention to the value of artwork that would otherwise be overlooked or marginalized in an economy that rewards scale (i.e. web2 music economy right now).”
– @cheriehu

Further, @brodconley notes (and we recently discovered in our recent mini-course on building Web3 music communities), that building and scaling online communities isn’t an easy task, and requires a great deal of time and specialist knowledge, which many working artists won’t have the time or resources for:

“I wonder if those artists with less industry experience also are just hesitant to launch something that makes them beholden to a massive community immediately (and with little experience in the industry, they also likely have little experience with getting support from a team, so don’t know what’s possible, scale-wise). Maybe just a matter of many folks testing the waters gingerly, while trying not to overextend themselves and their obligations to the communities they’re trying to build?”
– @brodconley

@brodconley also observed that successful 10k projects can represent a retelling of the overnight success story for emerging artists:

“10K PFP collections tied to music offer the ability to go from 0 fans to 10K in a single day, without the slow rolling process of artists learning through trial and error (and adding team members) how to interact with and engage those fans (and treat them well, while also being able to still create new art, while not spending all their time managing their fan community). So basically, this emergent process has now been condensed into a very short timeframe, which likely leaves a lot of artists a little terrified”
– @brodconley

There is an interesting analogy between 10k NFT projects and the viral fame offered by digital platforms like TikTok. Both offer accelerated success by encouraging artists to pair their music with other digital assets (short-form videos, NFTs). While the desire for overnight success is maybe a tale as old as time in entertainment, concentrated innovation focusing on accelerating success is proof that traditional music industry paths to success are letting down increasing numbers of artists, signaling a need for alternative models.

Further reading: A study of music NFT platforms’ onboarding strategies