1/ Let's start with something controversial: the music industry is inverting.

2/ In 1781, Mozart moved from Salzburg to Vienna, the cultural capital of Austria, to advance his music career.
3/ At this time, Mozart could not record music, which made it scarce.

If you wanted to hear him play, you had to listen in person. Fans had personal relationships with their favorite musicians.
4/ This changed when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph.

For the first time, music was infinitely replicable and could last forever. Since fans didn’t have to listen to music live, they could support their favorite musicians in new ways.
5/ Power and attention centralized.

Artists lacked the skills and capital required to distribute their music. They had to live in NY, LA, or Nashville, where they did favors for industry insiders and paid their dues.

Small groups of “expert” executives called the shots.
6/ Labels had all the power.

Their business models depended on mass market reach and distribution, so they financed music for people with “average” taste.
7/ With strong connections to radio stations, record stores, and television networks, artists could not garner attention without the labels.

The big got bigger, but it was hard for small artists to break in.
8/ This system worked well for decades until the rise of illegal streaming.

The internet changed things. Consumer spend on recorded music plummeted, falling 71% from 1999 to 2014.
9/ My favorite example is Soulja Boy’s Crank Dat.

He used to make Top 40 playlists and upload them to torrent sites. Then, he slipped his own track in there and people thought it was a hit.

Perception became reality when I started dancing to it at Bar Mitzvahs 😂😂
10/ On the internet, there’s little scarcity.

The laws of supply and demand no longer work when there’s infinite supply and replication is easy.

The music industry needs a new revenue stream.
11/ The answer: concerts.

Today, 87% of revenue now comes from concerts versus recorded music. Live music is the bedrock of artists’ income streams.
12/ Because of YouTube and streaming services, modern artists are using new strategies to reach their fans.

Playlists trump albums and there's a new set of rules:
1) Release music more often.
2) Focus more on singles, and less on albums.
3) Record videos to connect with fans.
13/ Fans are discovering songs in new ways:
1) Playlists
2) Viral videos and memes

Power has shifted from gatekeepers to the wisdom of the crowd.
14/ It’s a song based economy. With his album journals, Justin Bieber released one song at a time until the full album was out.

Why?

Each song generated millions of social media impressions, downloads, and streams. No song left behind.
15./ On social media, artists are re-inventing what it means to be a celebrity and finding new ways to connect with fans.

They’re brilliant community builders — they’re real, accessible, and engage fans directly.
16/ Audio and audio are coming together on YouTube, minting global superstars.

Gangnam Style was so popular that tourism to South Korea increased more than 15% the year after it was released.
17/ The music business is inverting.

Music used to be the bottom of the funnel, but now, it’s the top of the funnel.

With brand deals, startups, and merchandise sales, artists are building a portfolio of revenue streams. People don’t just buy music — they buy the brand.
18/ Today, we’ve returned to the days of Mozart, but this time it’s global.

Artists are building passionate communities.
Fans have direct relationships with their favorite artists.
19/ Artists communicate like friends, not businesses.

We watch them make music, they share their secrets with us, they’re always with us on social media, and they come to our hometown to play music for us.

They’re our best friends.
Thanks to @mrsharma for thinking through these ideas with me 😎

He said it. I wrote it.
Turned this into a blog post

"Naked Brands: The Future of Music"

🎶 https://t.co/JruLcSYPCr 🎶

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND HISTORY OF SWASTIK

The Swastik is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon. Swastik has been Sanatan Dharma’s symbol of auspiciousness – mangalya since time immemorial.


The name swastika comes from Sanskrit (Devanagari: स्वस्तिक, pronounced: swastik) &denotes “conducive to wellbeing or auspicious”.
The word Swastik has a definite etymological origin in Sanskrit. It is derived from the roots su – meaning “well or auspicious” & as meaning “being”.


"सु अस्ति येन तत स्वस्तिकं"
Swastik is de symbol through which everything auspicios occurs

Scholars believe word’s origin in Vedas,known as Swasti mantra;

"🕉स्वस्ति ना इन्द्रो वृधश्रवाहा
स्वस्ति ना पूषा विश्ववेदाहा
स्वस्तिनास्तरक्ष्यो अरिश्तनेमिही
स्वस्तिनो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु"


It translates to," O famed Indra, redeem us. O Pusha, the beholder of all knowledge, redeem us. Redeem us O Garudji, of limitless speed and O Bruhaspati, redeem us".

SWASTIK’s COSMIC ORIGIN

The Swastika represents the living creation in the whole Cosmos.


Hindu astronomers divide the ecliptic circle of cosmos in 27 divisions called
https://t.co/sLeuV1R2eQ this manner a cross forms in 4 directions in the celestial sky. At centre of this cross is Dhruva(Polestar). In a line from Dhruva, the stars known as Saptarishi can be observed.