Festivals can offer great exposure for smaller acts, but the competition for slots is fierce.
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Live performances account for more than 40 percent of their income, while profits from streaming and record sales amount to only 5 percent of their earnings.
Members of South Korean boy band Bangtan Boys, or BTS, arrive for the Asia Artist Awards 2018 in Incheon, South Korea, 28 November 2018.
Kim Hee-Chul/EPA
K-pop has claimed its share of the world market. It is about time that I-pop gives its best to do the same.
YouTube.
Their compilation album Love Yourself: Answer sold 2.5m copies – that’s twice as many as One Direction’s last album.
What causes a media business to bar the door?
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While they may talk about ‘free speech,’ businesses make decisions about their content based on a very different set of principles.
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Song by song streaming services may be hurting the album commercially, but its place in our cultural lexicon will be harder to shake.
This is America.
Childish Gambino/YouTube
The music industry, like all other media, can be censored to some extent. So how does this change its output?
Kasey Chambers was one of the six women who won awards at the ARIAs this year. Women had no nominations at all in Best Group, Dance, Adult Contemporary or Hard Rock/Heavy Metal.
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Why, in 2017, are women still falling behind in the ARIA awards: in nominations, winners, and performances?
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Ticket touting is bad for fans and it’s bad for the industry, but should reselling tickets be a criminal offence?
Kate Tempest who is on the shortlist for the Hyundai Mercury Prize 2017.
Ben Birchall/PA Wire/PA Images
The Mercury Prize still relies on the album format in an age of downloads and streaming.
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SoundCloud
SoundCloud has been saved by its biggest injection of cash yet.
Brenda Fassie performing in her hey day.
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There are a few things that musicians should understand about the music industry if they are to avoid being taken for a ride.
Michael Jackson sings during the opening performance of a 13-city U.S. tour in 1988.
AP Photo/Cliff Schiappa
The story of African-American music is a story of eclipsing expectations and subverting norms.
Data from what we download and listen to can now be mined to create and promote future songs.
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Does musical taste even matter anymore? Or does a data-driven feedback loop – where what you enjoy in the past shapes what you hear today – influence what you’ll like in the future?
Melbourne’s Flinders Street station is transformed into a stage for the 2013 White Night.
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Melbourne may be the self-proclaimed music capital of Australia, but industry data suggests Sydney may have the upper hand. Meanwhile the UN recognises Adelaide as the country’s only city of music.
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We need to look beyond the music industry to understand the rise of the comeback.
People watch Father John Misty perform at the 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Music festivals have been a boon to the music industry, but now we’re starting to witness some pitfalls of commercial success: consolidation and creeping conformity.
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By offering single platforms exclusive rights for their new albums, some musicians are streaming against the tide.
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The R&B superstar is demonstrating just how far the use of mystery goes in today’s cluttered music market.
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Bitcoin, blockchain and automatic royalty payments could transform how musicians earn.
Beyonce performing at the Super Bowl.
Larry W. Smith/EPA
Her visual album Lemonade is important for more reasons than you might think. Pop may never be the same again.