Music Biz 2018

Revenues from catalogue sales have long underpinned the major record label model, yet this framework is coming to an end. Until breaking a new act, A&R typically operated at a loss whilst catalogue represented a growth fund from which labels invested in future talent. The positive side of this was that it facilitated an appetite for risk in emerging artists, yet this model stands at a crossroads where catalogue sales, in the traditional sense, are going to fall.


Younger music consumers have not grown up buying albums and are spending less time both listening to albums and listening to individual albums multiple times. As a result, the foundations for deep diving into catalogue are not being set up for them, with streaming engendering audiences to focus on the new. Add Gen Z’s tendency towards consuming, at speed, larger volumes of (usually social) content, and what you have is the catalyst for a reassessment of how the economics of the entire recorded music business works.


Using proprietary MIDiA Research data, this presentation will take a look at how the old model worked and discuss how it is being threatened by streaming.