Connecting to listeners, not making money or signing to a major label, is the most important aspect of success for a musician, according to a new report titled “Sustainability from Chaos” by MIDiA Research and Amuse, a distribution and artist services company. Even if they reach only a small number of people, 89% of all creators surveyed and 94% of full-time professionals believe that success is defined by moving people with music.
Money matters, too, but relatively few artists say they strive to be superstars. Just 17% of creators and 21% of full-time musicians said being famous is critical to success, while 21% of both groups said signing to a record label is a sign of success. Still, 83% of full-time musicians — and 63% of all creators — defined success as making a career out of music.
The report is based on a survey of 450 artists conducted in April 2024 for MIDiA Research’s Creator Survey.
It’s an important time to consider how artists define success. Artists have a wealth of options for releasing and financing their music. And there are far more independent artists than artists who have signed traditional record deals. MIDiA estimates that 95% of artists are “artist direct,” meaning they work with a distributor or artist services platform. Only 1% of artists are signed to a major label; the remainder are signed to indie labels.
The vastness of the independent artist market, and their desire for control over their careers, explains why companies are investing heavily in distribution and artist services. Universal Music Group has Virgin Music Group. Sony Music Entertainment has AWAL. Warner Music Group was interested in — but did not acquire — Believe, owner of TuneCore. Distributors such as STEM, UnitedMasters, Ditto and Symphonic have collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding in recent years.
For these service providers to succeed, they must provide artists with deeper, more meaningful connections with fans. According to MIDiA Research, the old definitions of success are being replaced by newer metrics of success such as community membership (such as Discord and WhatApp groups), sold-out shows and merchandise sales. According to the report, this approach “emphasizes building long-lasting relationships over merely accumulating views and followers.”
In the past, mainstream success was measured by chart position, radio play, awards and cover stories. Those achievements would give an artist a good chance at a sustainable career in music. But in the streaming era, those signals of mainstream success have been replaced by what the report called “misleading” metrics such as listens and follows. Chart position and radio play aren’t seen as meaningful indicators, according to the report, although they have marketing value.
Most full-time, professional artists want to work with a distributor with label services or a self-serve platform with tools that support artists to release their albums and tracks. In fact, these artists would rather work with a distributor (31%) than sign to an indie label (20%) and are nearly as interested in taking a do-it-yourself route (17%) or using a self-serve, online platform with artist tools (16%). Only 10% prefer using a management company to run their businesses, and only 6% prefer to sign with a major label.
Considering all creators — including both professional and part-time artists — a self-serve online platform is the preferred way to release albums and tracks (28%), followed by an indie label (25%), a distributor with label services (20%) and the do-it-yourself route (13%). A major label is preferred by just 7% of all creators. Management companies were the least preferred partner (6%).
Artists surveyed feel that breaking through the noise (54%) is the biggest challenge they face. Not having enough time to create (40%) and not having financial resources (35%) were the second- and third-biggest challenges cited by artists. That “noise” refers to the massive amount of music released every day online. In 2023, there was an average of 103,500 tracks uploaded daily to digital platforms, up 10.8% from 93,400 per day in 2022, according to Luminate’s Year-End Report 2023. Major labels accounted for just 3.9% of those tracks — as measured by new ISRC numbers — compared to 96.1% for the rest of the industry.
Building a sustainable career is made more difficult by the challenges of touring. Skyrocketing costs mean that live music is no longer the best way for artists to make money — but it’s still a goal for many artists and a path to financial comfort. In the report, MIDiA Research recommends that artist services companies provide stipends or salaries for new signings as well as tour support typically offered by record labels: “All artist services companies,” it writes, “need to take a longer-term view on artist relationships.”
