Streaming enabled the rise of the independent artist and then the rise of the music creator. The promise of the long tail finally appeared to be realised. But the pandemic’s disruption of live music catalysed an already growing realisation among long- and mid-tail artists that they lack the scale to benefit from streaming economics. The music creator economy is at a tipping point, with ever more creators realising that the activity funnel towards streaming is better considered as a series of discreet slices, each of which can deliver better returns for them than the streaming end point.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Airbit, Avid, AWAL, BandLab, Bandcamp, BeatStars, CD Baby, Chelsea Cutler, Discord, DistroKid, Fiverr, Instagram, Kenny Beats, LANDR, Monique Winning, NetEase Cloud Music, Only Fans, Parlophone, Patreon, PinkPantheress, Rapchat, Shorts, Sony Music, SoundBetter, SoundCloud, Splice, Tencent Music Entertainment, TikTok, TuneCore, Twitch, Universal Music, Virgin Music, WMX, YouTube, and Zola Jesus