As things loosened up post-pandemic, artists got back into the studio and started making music again. They needed to do that so they could get back on the road and make some money. As streaming continues to supplant broadcasting as a way consumers get music it’s imperative for artists to be on the road and fill arenas, clubs and stadiums. While record and CD sales are having a bit of a boutique resurgence, streaming is the norm and sadly it pays very, very little per stream. That is why expensive concert tickets and $50 t-shirts and exclusive meet and greet packages are common. Also live-streamed concerts are a way for artists to easily monetize fewer events.
A side effect of the lessened reliance on broadcasting is the fact that artists no longer must adhere to the FCCs decency rules. In fact, the more outrageous, the better in the world of streaming new music. It’s the same act of rebellion that music popular with the world’s youth has embraced for decades. But wow. Some of it’s rough. At CMC Neptune we can help you there. No music is bad in our ears, but it’s not all appropriate for the Volleyball game or the water park.
Musically, there are a few interesting trends. Just like last year, Spanish language music is still growing in popularity. But K-Pop (Korean Pop) is exploding, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down right now. There is an interesting wrinkle in the K-Pop world. All able bodied Korean male citizens must serve 18 months in the military. This won’t affect girl groups like Blackpink or Red Velvet but K-Pop- boy band superstars BTS are being impacted by this. BTS are essentially done performing together until 2025.
K-Pop is a great segue to a huge influencing entity, movies and TV. In Disney’s “Turning Red” the girls are eager to see 4*Town, a K-pop act. 4*Town is not a real band, but it was requested many times on our system, so we obliged. Similarly, in “Encanto” the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” was a massive hit. Netflix’s “Stranger Things” did some strange things to the charts by resurrecting both Kate Bush’s “Running up That Hill (1985)” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets (1986).” Great songs, which lead me to another trend.
According to the Atlantic Magazine, “Old songs” represent 70 percent of the US streaming market. New music is shrinking. That’s weird, right? Some blame music executives employed by big publicly traded companies, and similarly run broadcast groups, who are too fearful to take a chance on anything new or interesting. A lot of time is spent doing things the way they have always done it.
The reality is Tik Tok, YouTube, and Spotify are places where one can find some interesting stuff. The youth live in these palaces and they’re the frontier of new music. And we do employ those sources (and the traditional ones) when looking for music. Our mission is to keep adding fresh new music and to keep mining for awesome deep cuts in more established genres so that we can find something that your patrons will have a real connection with and truly enjoy…as long as it’s clean.