Back to the days of Top of the Pops (TOTP) and listening to the Top 40 at 4pm on a Sunday on your local commercial radio station, it was easy to identify who the big acts were. From Take That, the girl power of The Spice Girls, even the one hit ‘wonders’ such as Eiffel 65 with the irritating ‘Blue (Da Ba Dee)’, we all knew which artists were successful and popular (though we can question some of these today!). Since music was discovered online, this has changed the ways in which we listen and connect with music.
YouTube, Limewire and iTunes, especially with the increase of illegal downloads in recent years are just a few of the sites we now turn to when looking for the latest songs or upcoming artists. Now, there are increasing numbers of unknown artists getting discovered or quietly getting pockets of cash without appearing in gossip columns and NME. Thus, the old rules of pop success no longer exist. How do we measure pop success today?
The former business model which created the likes of artists such as Bruce Springsteen, is no longer universally applicable. Mike Smith, MD of Columbia (UK) Label Group comments: “A lot of artists now see a record deal not as an end in itself but as a means to drive everything else�. This draws upon an increasingly commercial revenue which artists are now tapping or ‘beating’ themselves into – deals based on ‘synchronisation’, product endorsement, internet streaming, ring tones, merchandising, broadcasting royalties and magazine cover deals.
Synchronisation involves an artist getting their music into movies, TV ads and TV series, as well as the odd mobile ring tone and now, computer games with the likes of Guitar Hero. Synchronisation is providing an extra few thousand or even millions to old bands like Aerosmith, and establishing platforms for newer acts. For example, the ‘Gorilla’ marketing of Phil Collins classic ‘In The Air Tonight’ for Cadbury’s successful viral and TV ad last year bought royalties to Mr Collins, adding to his millions.
In 2006, Sandi Thom, a Scottish singer-songwriter who had a number in the UK with ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)’ found fame after being discovered from a series of webcasts by record label, RCA. Despite the huge success of her first single, she was dropped by RCA in February this year. However, from these examples we can observe that success can happen for anyone who wants to get their music out to an audience. Moreover, the assistance of record labels is no longer necessary.
From this, the music industry has been restructured with a few artists seeking to become independent with their own labels. This route has been taken up recently by McFly. It is no wonder that some artists and bands are looking to pursue their music via their own labels in their efforts to prevent record labels rinsing in their money, especially those who write their own material. The Film&Music Report in 2007 found that it approximately cost £600,000 to launch a band, of which only £35,000 over each 18 months would go to the artist.
So we can see how music success has developed; originally, it was defined in terms of record sales and a high profile in the media. At present, to classify the success of an artist or band, there are a range of factors to consider: synchronisation earnings; legal downloads; product endorsements; ticket sales; streaming revenues; and merchandise. Thus, what began as a simple business for record labels by using traditional print and broadcast media and CD’s to promote their artists and bands, has bought forward a challenging music business.