Yet Another Study Shows Musicians Making More Money
from the well,-look-at-that dept
We've made the argument repeatedly that saying unauthorized file sharing is hurting the music business lacks evidence. Instead, what we've seen, over and over again, is that more money is pouring into the music business, more music is being produced and (most importantly) that more musicians who embrace this new world are doing better than they would have otherwise. Now, we've pointed to research in the UK, Sweden and the US that have all shown aggregate growth for the music business, with some of the numbers suggesting more money going directly to musicians, rather than gatekeepers.
The latest study, highlighted by TorrentFreak takes a similar look at the Norwegian music market to show very similar findings and (of course) that musicians are, indeed, benefiting:
Like the UK and Swedish studies, this study, covering Norway, found that the aggregate amount going to the industry is up slightly (4% in real terms), mostly thanks to live shows more than making up for the decline in music sales (it's important to note that these researchers appear to have modeled their research on both the UK and Swedish studies, and made only slight changes, which they explain (and justify) in the report. The key finding is that musicians appear to be making significantly more these days than in the past:
Total artist revenues have gone from NOK 208 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, which is an increase of about 162%. Excluding state subsidization, the income from 1999 to 2009 has increased with NOK 229 million, or 147%....
According to this, Norwegian artists have seen an increase in all four of their income sources during the past eleven years. This goes contrary to the common belief that artists have seen a decline in income because of the digitalization of the industry.
The loss of record sales because of consequences of the digitalization of the industry has not affected the Norwegian artists in the same brutal way as it has the record companies. Artists earn in general 20% or less from record sales, and a decrease in record sales would most likely be compensated by an increase in one or more of the other three income sources.
Now, it's worth pointing out -- as I learned when I attended Nordic Music Week last year -- that the Norwegian music industry is heavily subsidized by the government, which is one of the four revenue streams discussed above. However, that only represents about 30% of artist revenue in 2009. The largest single component -- again similar to what we've seen elsewhere -- is live revenue, which continues to grow. Even if you exclude state subsidies, the report found that Norwegian artists doubled their income in the past 11 years:
Adjusted for inflation, total artist revenue has gone from NOK 255 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, an increase of about NOK 290 million or 114%. Excluding state subsidizations, the increase has changed from NOK 192 million to NOK 386 million, which is an increase of NOK 194 million or 101% This goes to show that the artists themselves, as a group, have seen tremendous more growth than the industry as a whole.
And, yes, there are more musicians out there to split the pie, but the growth rate in the industry has increased more quickly than the growth in musicians.
Since the total number of artists in 1999 and 2009 are available to the authors, it is possible to calculate an average income from music for artists in Norway. With 3200 artists in 1999 the average income from music would be about NOK 65 000. With 4100 artists in 2009 the average income from music is about NOK 133 000, creating an increase of NOK 68 000 or 105%. Adjusted for inflation the income has increased with from about NOK 80 000 to NOK 133 000, an increase of NOK 53 000, an increase of 66%.
Overall, the results, like those in Sweden and the UK, seem to clearly debunk the repeated claims from recording industry folks (and some musicians) that artists are somehow suffering under this new setup. Now, there may absolutely be cases where artists who fail to adapt are struggling, and there's no doubt that some labels that failed to adapt are struggling -- but there's increasingly little evidence that the overall music industry or artists as a whole are suffering. All of the evidence seems to suggest that it's not file sharing that's a problem at all. More money is going into the music business. The only problems are from those in the industry too stubborn or too clueless to adapt to capture the money that's flowing in.
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innovation, funds, startups
University of Michigan Social Venture Fund Comes Out of Stealth, Aims to Invest in Companies at the Nexus of Public and Private
Erin Kutz 9/27/10
“Social shouldn’t be viewed as soft,” says University of Michigan finance professor Gautam Kaul. “Unfortunately, soft and social tend to go together in people’s perceptions.”
But Social Venture Fund, a new investing vehicle out of the University of Michigan that came out of stealth mode just last week, is taking a hard look at social inequality—and is out to prove that investments targeted at ameliorating it can make money. “We want to use rigor in measuring social impact and making investments that are real,” says Kaul, the managing director of the fund.
A handful of students approached him a year and a half ago with the idea for a social venture fund, as a new business model to help solve real-world problems, he says. He made the team formally pitch the idea to him (much in the same fashion entrepreneurs present to investors), to prove the concept went beyond a philanthropic idea, and had the potential to also generate returns.
Social Venture Fund’s team, which is now expanding and could reach a total of 30 students, has been working over the past year to develop the vision for the project and the types of companies it will invest in, Kaul says. The fund adds to the university’s group of student-run funds—the Frankel Commercialization Fund and Wolverine Venture Fund, which has had four successful exits, including an IPO. Unlike the other student-run funds at the university, Social Venture Fund didn’t start with money, Kaul says. “We felt that this was too important to wait on trying to raise money for something.” The 2010 MBA class at the school has already pledged its gift to the Social Venture Fund, which is also working on a big fundraising push.
Broadly, Kaul’s team envisions its investments falling into a handful of sectors: education, food and nutrition, health, finance, the environment, and urban revitalization. He says the team is particularly interested in looking at companies that fuse the latter two concepts, and work on solving problems that are often left to the government.
“We want to create a new type of organization that does not worry only about money making, but worries about policy and impact on society,” he continues. To do that, Social Venture Fund is looking at companies that …Next Page »
Erin Kutz is an Assistant Editor for Xconomy. You can reach her by e-mail at ekutz@xconomy.com or by phone at (617) 252-0700.
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The New York Times, Washington Post and Gannett have each invested $4 million in a yet-to-launch startup called Ongo, described as a “consumer service for reading and sharing digital news and information from multiple publishers.” ...
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Yet Another Study Shows Musicians Making More Money
from the well,-look-at-that dept
We've made the argument repeatedly that saying unauthorized file sharing is hurting the music business lacks evidence. Instead, what we've seen, over and over again, is that more money is pouring into the music business, more music is being produced and (most importantly) that more musicians who embrace this new world are doing better than they would have otherwise. Now, we've pointed to research in the UK, Sweden and the US that have all shown aggregate growth for the music business, with some of the numbers suggesting more money going directly to musicians, rather than gatekeepers.
The latest study, highlighted by TorrentFreak takes a similar look at the Norwegian music market to show very similar findings and (of course) that musicians are, indeed, benefiting:
Like the UK and Swedish studies, this study, covering Norway, found that the aggregate amount going to the industry is up slightly (4% in real terms), mostly thanks to live shows more than making up for the decline in music sales (it's important to note that these researchers appear to have modeled their research on both the UK and Swedish studies, and made only slight changes, which they explain (and justify) in the report. The key finding is that musicians appear to be making significantly more these days than in the past:
Total artist revenues have gone from NOK 208 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, which is an increase of about 162%. Excluding state subsidization, the income from 1999 to 2009 has increased with NOK 229 million, or 147%....
According to this, Norwegian artists have seen an increase in all four of their income sources during the past eleven years. This goes contrary to the common belief that artists have seen a decline in income because of the digitalization of the industry.
The loss of record sales because of consequences of the digitalization of the industry has not affected the Norwegian artists in the same brutal way as it has the record companies. Artists earn in general 20% or less from record sales, and a decrease in record sales would most likely be compensated by an increase in one or more of the other three income sources.
Now, it's worth pointing out -- as I learned when I attended Nordic Music Week last year -- that the Norwegian music industry is heavily subsidized by the government, which is one of the four revenue streams discussed above. However, that only represents about 30% of artist revenue in 2009. The largest single component -- again similar to what we've seen elsewhere -- is live revenue, which continues to grow. Even if you exclude state subsidies, the report found that Norwegian artists doubled their income in the past 11 years:
Adjusted for inflation, total artist revenue has gone from NOK 255 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, an increase of about NOK 290 million or 114%. Excluding state subsidizations, the increase has changed from NOK 192 million to NOK 386 million, which is an increase of NOK 194 million or 101% This goes to show that the artists themselves, as a group, have seen tremendous more growth than the industry as a whole.
And, yes, there are more musicians out there to split the pie, but the growth rate in the industry has increased more quickly than the growth in musicians.
Since the total number of artists in 1999 and 2009 are available to the authors, it is possible to calculate an average income from music for artists in Norway. With 3200 artists in 1999 the average income from music would be about NOK 65 000. With 4100 artists in 2009 the average income from music is about NOK 133 000, creating an increase of NOK 68 000 or 105%. Adjusted for inflation the income has increased with from about NOK 80 000 to NOK 133 000, an increase of NOK 53 000, an increase of 66%.
Overall, the results, like those in Sweden and the UK, seem to clearly debunk the repeated claims from recording industry folks (and some musicians) that artists are somehow suffering under this new setup. Now, there may absolutely be cases where artists who fail to adapt are struggling, and there's no doubt that some labels that failed to adapt are struggling -- but there's increasingly little evidence that the overall music industry or artists as a whole are suffering. All of the evidence seems to suggest that it's not file sharing that's a problem at all. More money is going into the music business. The only problems are from those in the industry too stubborn or too clueless to adapt to capture the money that's flowing in.
27 Comments | Leave a Comment..
innovation, funds, startups
University of Michigan Social Venture Fund Comes Out of Stealth, Aims to Invest in Companies at the Nexus of Public and Private
Erin Kutz 9/27/10
“Social shouldn’t be viewed as soft,” says University of Michigan finance professor Gautam Kaul. “Unfortunately, soft and social tend to go together in people’s perceptions.”
But Social Venture Fund, a new investing vehicle out of the University of Michigan that came out of stealth mode just last week, is taking a hard look at social inequality—and is out to prove that investments targeted at ameliorating it can make money. “We want to use rigor in measuring social impact and making investments that are real,” says Kaul, the managing director of the fund.
A handful of students approached him a year and a half ago with the idea for a social venture fund, as a new business model to help solve real-world problems, he says. He made the team formally pitch the idea to him (much in the same fashion entrepreneurs present to investors), to prove the concept went beyond a philanthropic idea, and had the potential to also generate returns.
Social Venture Fund’s team, which is now expanding and could reach a total of 30 students, has been working over the past year to develop the vision for the project and the types of companies it will invest in, Kaul says. The fund adds to the university’s group of student-run funds—the Frankel Commercialization Fund and Wolverine Venture Fund, which has had four successful exits, including an IPO. Unlike the other student-run funds at the university, Social Venture Fund didn’t start with money, Kaul says. “We felt that this was too important to wait on trying to raise money for something.” The 2010 MBA class at the school has already pledged its gift to the Social Venture Fund, which is also working on a big fundraising push.
Broadly, Kaul’s team envisions its investments falling into a handful of sectors: education, food and nutrition, health, finance, the environment, and urban revitalization. He says the team is particularly interested in looking at companies that fuse the latter two concepts, and work on solving problems that are often left to the government.
“We want to create a new type of organization that does not worry only about money making, but worries about policy and impact on society,” he continues. To do that, Social Venture Fund is looking at companies that …Next Page »
Erin Kutz is an Assistant Editor for Xconomy. You can reach her by e-mail at ekutz@xconomy.com or by phone at (617) 252-0700.
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3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.
Media companies invest in <b>news</b> startup, Ongo - Lost Remote
The New York Times, Washington Post and Gannett have each invested $4 million in a yet-to-launch startup called Ongo, described as a “consumer service for reading and sharing digital news and information from multiple publishers.” ...
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
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3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.
Media companies invest in <b>news</b> startup, Ongo - Lost Remote
The New York Times, Washington Post and Gannett have each invested $4 million in a yet-to-launch startup called Ongo, described as a “consumer service for reading and sharing digital news and information from multiple publishers.” ...
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
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3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.
Media companies invest in <b>news</b> startup, Ongo - Lost Remote
The New York Times, Washington Post and Gannett have each invested $4 million in a yet-to-launch startup called Ongo, described as a “consumer service for reading and sharing digital news and information from multiple publishers.” ...
Murata Seisakusho Robot Learns New Skill « Akihabara <b>News</b>
To pursue its growth Akihabara News is seeking for several more editors via an intership program for 6 to 9 months. Please send us a mail @ jobs@akihabaranews.com. Message. We are moving away from Feedburner, please update your RSS ...
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