Music Think Tank

The streaming business model will change across the board. The new models will have fairground for artists and labels alike.
Due to royalty rates and a rebellion of artists, streaming services will be forced to put limitations on music catalogs.
With prices at an all time low and stagnant music sales, touring will continue to be a cash cow for the music industry. Yet again, touring will be the bread winner this year.
Major artists will continue to rebel against streaming services like Spotify. These artists will pull or ban their music from these streaming services. (ex. Taylor Swift and Adele)
True artists will realize their music value. However, it will take time to restore the value of music throughout the music industry. Music will not restore its value by traditional distribution patterns or even streaming services.
The music industry will finally acknowledge that streaming and on-demand music services are killing the music industry. This will force streaming services to reshape their business models.
The major labels will little by little take control of their own distribution, instead of depending on second and third party tech companies that only look out for their best interest.
The major labels will create a new distribution platform or business model for music distribution and discovery. This platform or business model may not be new, but has shown true potential in the past. (ex. including the price of music download codes onto the concert ticket.
Pandora will face many financial obstacles this year due to royalty payouts, bad business strategies, and investments will be to blame for their financial problems and maybe even see a repeat of Rdio.
Digital music sales and physical music sales continue to head in a downward spiral, as for touring it will dominate the music industry’s revenue stream. However, I believe that a new streaming model and distribution platform will arise by the end of next year.
In 2015 we saw freemium music service subscriptions start to die out but in 2016 freemium will take its last breath. (The music industry views freemium subscription services as cannibalism and is a good way to kill the value of music.)
Vinyl continues to be a profitable format with trendy collectors who truly love the format.
This year we will see more sponsor driven albums. (ex. Exclusive Target albums, Samsung, iTunes, and Tidal)
This year Apple will pull out of streaming entirely and Jay Z will sell Tidal. Jay Z will depart from the company at just the right time showing others his smart business sense.

Jason K Ventura

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email: jason@jasonkventura.com

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