Breaking the Nostalgia: Rethinking Music Marketing for the Streaming Era
The wonderful Mark Knight, founder of Major Labl Artist Club has put together this article for us!
Mark Knight has over 10 years of experience as an artist manager. Mark’s work with The Daydream Club was recognised with a nomination for Best Digital Campaign at The Music Ally Awards. (The only unsigned artist to be nominated)
Mark has lectured on music marketing at MIDEM, Off The Record and Liverpool Sound City, written for The Guardian, Unsigned Guide, Reverbnation, Music Think Tank and judged the Music Week Awards. Mark runs Right Chord Music (a top 10 ranked unsigned music blog) the Lost On Radio Podcast / Playlist, and The Takeover online music festival, presented by Bose, in support of Nordoff Robbins. This year the festival attracted over 600,000 online views.
For the last 19 years, Mark has also consulted for some of the world’s biggest brands including evian, Nivea and Vodafone.
When it comes to music marketing, we’re stuck in the past. Our image of fans is centred on romantic images of 70s groupies or ‘band-aids’ from films like Almost Famous. It’s time to snap out of the dream. Love it or hate it, the way we consume music has changed, and to succeed in the streaming world of content requires a fundamentally different approach.
Byron Sharp - How Brands Grow
Byron Sharp’s seminal book How Brands Grow, published in 2010, has become a marketeer’s bible. Sharp used data to challenge widely held industry beliefs about marketing effectiveness. In this article, Mark Knight, the founder of Major Label Artist Club, considers how Sharp’s principles of brand growth equally apply to band growth and whether changes to music consumption mean it’s time to rethink our approach to music marketing and fandom.
The context: Understanding music consumption
The IFPI’s Engaging with Music 2023 report examined how music listeners engaged with music across 26 of the world’s largest music markets. The report found an average of 20.7 hours were spent listening to music each week, up from 20.1 hours in 2022. Respondents reported using 7+ different methods to engage with music. Unsurprisingly, audio streaming (32%) was the most popular.
Subscription audio streaming is most popular among younger audiences (62% for 25-34-year-olds, vs. 28% for 55-64-year-olds). In the audio streaming landscape, Spotify remains dominant with a 31.7% global market share and 615 million active monthly users, including 239 million paying subscribers. The Spotify catalogue currently contains over 100 million tracks.
The shift from Artists to Songs
In the last 30 years, digital music access has largely replaced physical music ownership. The emergence of streaming services has changed our relationship with music. Gone are the days of queuing up outside Our Price to pick up a new album on launch day or popping into your local independent record shop to ask, “What’s good?”
Neither does this generation study sleeve notes to discover the names of producers, collaborators, and co-writers. Music today is largely consumed blind, on the phone, tucked away in their pocket. Even remembering the order or names of tracks isn’t important.
These changes have undoubtedly impacted our relationships with artists and changed fandom with a noticeable shift in focus from artists to songs.
Spotify data indicates that users listen to 30 to 100 times more individual tracks than artists each year. While this means more artists are reaching audiences, it’s becoming harder to cultivate loyal, repeat listeners. People are spreading their listening across a wider range of songs and artists.
If you’ve ever been surprised by the "Top" songs in your Spotify Wrapped, it might be because the difference between your top 5 and top 100 streamed songs is just a few plays.
This brings us neatly back to Byron Sharp. His research concludes:
Brands grow by reaching more buyers rather than by increasing loyalty.
Increasing market penetration is crucial; most buyers are light users.
Loyalty programs do not drive significant growth.
Could the same be true for music? While convention tells us the key to success is building and retaining loyal fans or fan clubs, now in the age of streaming, should our real focus for growth be recruiting the next listener?
Byron Sharp shows the potential gains from acquisition dwarf the potential gains from reducing defection. Or, very simply, it’s far easier for someone new to buy your product once than for the same person to buy it twice.
Data from Coca-Cola highlights this point. The average buyer is different from the typical buyer because a few heavy users skewed the 'average buyer'. In reality, half of all Coke buyers purchase only one or two cans or bottles per year. Very few buyers purchase around the ‘average’ of 12 times annually.
This isn’t just a quirk of Coca-Cola. All brands have many light buyers who purchase infrequently. Despite occasional purchases, these buyers are so numerous that they significantly contribute to overall sales. From Coca-Cola's perspective, a heavy buyer is defined as anyone who purchases three or more cans or bottles of Coke annually. Even for a large brand like Coca-Cola, the market is dominated by very light buyers.
Now let’s bring it back to music. What if we imagine Taylor Swift as the Coca-Cola of music? I suspect the chart above could equally be applied to her. While the hardcore ‘Swifties’ represent the heavy buyers, her phenomenal success has ultimately been driven by ubiquitous penetration (light buyers). Most Spotify users have listened to her music at least once in the last 12 months. In this case, incremental reach driven by one or two more streams is everything.
Practically speaking, if you are a time-poor, cash-poor independent artist, your time and money would be more effectively spent telling new people about your music than writing emails to encourage existing fans to listen again.
The nature of fandom has changed
The YouTube Culture & Trends Report 2024 highlights how the role of fans is evolving. Notably, 65% of Gen Z identify as creators, and 8% consider themselves "Professional Fans," earning money from their fan activities. This shift shows that fans are no longer just passive consumers; they are now active creators, adding a new dimension to fan engagement.
Casual Fans consume
Big Fans spend
Super Fans participate
Professional Fans earn
Perhaps most interestingly, the report finds 66% of Gen Z spend more time engaging with fan-made content than the original material. This means your music/content/post/story now becomes the start, not the end of the conversation. Fan culture is now driving and amplifying popular culture. Technological shifts in short-form video creation and generative AI have given fans more and increasingly creative ways to participate in their fandoms at speed.
For example:
Drake & Kendrick dropped 9 tracks during their feud, but fans uploaded 250,000+ pieces of related content, racking up over 3.5 billion views.
The community of ‘Swifties’ on YouTube make it possible for new fans to learn everything they need to know before attending a show. Creators like @AllySheehan dedicate their channels to Taylor Swift lyrics and lore, video essays on her cultural impact, and even Swiftie friendship bracelet tutorials. This has become a one-stop shop for new fans to become super fans.
Let’s bring it back to Byron Sharp’s key findings again. He concludes:
Success comes from making brands easy to buy and memorable.
Distinctive brand assets (logos, colours) drive recognition.
Targeting broad audiences, not niches, is more effective.
These insights provide a roadmap for future music marketing success.
Embrace authenticity—be true to yourself.
Focus on growth, not retention: Invest your time where it matters most.
Reach a broad audience; most listeners enjoy multiple genres, so don’t confine yourself to niches.
Expand beyond hardcore fans; target casual listeners to fuel growth.
Stand out with distinctive branding: use bold colours, fonts, clothing, and artwork.
Make your music easily accessible and eliminate barriers for your audience.
Create stories and moments that spark cultural conversation and debate, like Chappell Roan's themed headline tours.
Stay in tune with your fans' creations to understand their interests and refine your content.
Boost cultural relevance by giving fans the freedom to remix and reinterpret your work—this deepens your connection.