Music

> In 1999, there were six major labels. By 2012, through a process of aggressive mergers and acquisitions, there were just three. Having consolidated their power and market share, they operate an effective oligarchy, of which Spotify’s grotesque inequality is a high-profile manifestation.

> In 1999, there were six major labels. By 2012, through a process of aggressive mergers and acquisitions, there were just three. Having consolidated their power and market share, they operate an effective oligarchy, of which Spotify’s grotesque inequality is a high-profile manifestation.

https://jacobin.com/2025/06/spotify-music-industry-major-labels

We need to be the change trough our way of consuming music !!

Genre-free and in-motion music 💫 Turning stories into songs 🎶  🇦🇷📍🇯🇵 Listen, feel, & collect our journey 👉🏻 beacons.ai/duodomusica

Even if you and I could convince millions to change their habits, the big three still own the vast majority of the music catalogs we spend time listening to. So unless we go back to pirating, that kind of big shift isn’t happening anytime soon. And I don’t have much confidence in policy or regulation helping, since the big three seem to have a lot of influence there too

Musician • Songwriter • Producer | Web3's first rockstar | independent | check out my music: deshsaxena.com/release2

Rn it's in a shitty place, can't get much worse. but what we're slowly seeing is independent artists creeping in. From Ari Hertrstrand's book (great podcast too on the music industry): "in 2021 DIY self released artists earned more than $1.5 billion just from recorded music alone... Never before in the history of the modern music industry have independent musicians been able to sustain healthy long term careers on their own - without the help of a record label" - he then gives examples like Chance the Rapper, Tom Misch, brent Faiyaz, Vulfpeck etc.
Moreover, if you look at the general record label strategy - it seems to be look at people who have a following and add fuel to the fire - they basically expect the marketing to be done by you and ride on the fact that they just have massive industry pull.
I could concievably see a future where rather than giving up IP, you could give up shares like @yancey 's artist corporation. 
This change will not happen overnight, but I'm optimistic.

I feel like it’s the opposite. Consumers get all the music in the world for less than $20 a month. 

What makes you optimistic from an artist perspective? Spotify and the big labels are making all the money even though your music is on Spotify.

I think the situation is more dire from a consumer standpoint, from an artist standpoint I'm quietly optimistic.