amuse Study Tracks Explosive Growth of Independent Music, While Portraying the Artist Mindset During a Pandemic

September 30, 2020 | Amuse, the music company giving free music distribution and empowering tools to artists across the globe, today released a study in partnership with MIDiA Research, Independent Artists: Pathfinding Through A Pandemic. This is the second study from the two companies, assessing how independent artists worldwide are managing their careers, marketing and revenue streams along with the impact of COVID-19.

This is significant as the independent artist sector continues to be the fastest-growing segment of the global recorded music business with Artists Direct generating $873 million in 2019, up 32% from 2018.

– This report really shines a light on the significance of the independent and self-releasing artist sector, as well as the unique challenges it faces. The pandemic has displayed the need of a reinvented music industry, where artists have access to the tools they need to manage and grow their careers in an effective way, on their own terms. That’s something we’ve been dedicated to since day one at Amuse”, says Diego Farias, co-founder and CEO of Amuse.

The findings on the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown among independent artists include:

• Artist productivity accelerated during lockdown. Nearly 70% of artists spent more time writing or making music since the COVID-19 lockdown, and a further 57% created more content for social media. 
• Another 36% of artists said they have been collaborating more online and nearly 20% said they have been doing live streaming performances. While it is still early days for live streaming, it could represent a significant growth opportunity for independent artists.
• Lockdown placed the spotlight on streaming economics. Half of artists are becoming concerned that streaming services are not paying enough for them to make a living. Streaming is the primary source of income (at 28%) for independent artists. The majority of artists (64%) earn less than $10,000 a year with the average annual income earned by artists being $8,079.
• Most artists need four or five income streams, including publishing, teaching, session work or merchandise to get off the ground.
• The pandemic has dampened artists expectations on live touring, with only 39% emphasising touring as a key measure of success for an artist compared to more than 50% of artists from our independent artist study one year ago.
• Artists have reacted to lockdown differently. In terms of releasing music, artists were split – with 46% releasing more music, but 40% putting projects on hold during lockdown. While nearly 30% of artists are now more worried about finances than before, a similar proportion (28%) are not too concerned and feel that life will be back to normal soon.
• The vast majority of independent artists (85%) are not using any of the major creator crowdfunding platforms, with just 8% using Patreon. There is an opportunity for artists to embrace tools that help them access funding earlier in their careers, including Fast Forward from Amuse.

– If more artists can crack funding and remuneration earlier in their careers, the direct artist sector can grow even more strongly than it is already doing,” said Mark Mulligan, managing director at MIDiA Research and continued: The case here is clear for increasing the ways that artists of all kinds can close the funding gap as they build their music careers especially in the wake of the pandemic.

Additional findings from the study include:

• Traditionally, being signed to a label has been seen as the ‘next step’ in an artist's career, but less than one in five artists consider it important to be signed to a record label.
• Marketing is a DIY affair. Half of all direct artists do their own marketing, with one third managing their own marketing budget, but 40% of direct artists spend nothing on marketing. Less than one in five direct marketers are working with a distributor or label on marketing activities.
• Artists are self-reliant but still inexperienced with marketing. At least when it comes to getting their careers started, artists are not making the most of the tools available. While almost two-thirds of artists are using Spotify For Artists, few of them are using any other marketing related tools.

Download the full report here!

About MIDiA Research
MIDiA Research is a market intelligence and consulting firm with longstanding expertise in the business of entertainment and digital media. We help businesses formulate commercially actionable strategies to navigate the evolving digital landscape. Our clients leverage our expertise, proprietary multi-country consumer data and market forecasts to enable smarter and faster decisions.

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