Author: Amit Dubey

  • The Mid-Tier Manifesto: Why “Making It” Is a 20th Century Lie

    Most artists grow up believing the same story.
    You write a song, it lands on a major editorial playlist, a scout from a three letter label calls, and suddenly you are on a private jet.

    In 2026, that is not a career plan. It is a lottery ticket. And like all lotteries, the odds are designed so the house almost always wins.

    If you have read my earlier writing on the early career publishing blind spot, you know my focus stays on the backend of music. I do this deliberately. Because the front end, fame, blue checks, viral clips, is increasingly hollow.

    We are living through a quiet bifurcation of discovery.
    On one side are the mega stars.
    On the other is a growing, resilient middle class of musicians who are building real livelihoods without ever being famous.

    Which one are you actually chasing.

    The Death of the Big Break

    The music industry used to resemble a ladder. Garage to club. Club to theatre. Theatre to stadium.

    That ladder no longer exists.

    Today, it has been replaced by an infinite, flat ocean of content. With more than 150,000 tracks uploaded every single day, being noticed is no longer the challenge.

    Being retained is.

    Labels are no longer gatekeepers. They operate more like high interest banks. They rarely break artists from zero. They identify artists who have already built momentum and then participate in the upside.

    If you are waiting for a savior, you will be waiting a very long time.

    The Math of the Hundred Thousand Dollar Artist

    In 2026, the value of a passive listener is at an all-time low.
    The value of a committed fan has never been higher.

    To earn one hundred thousand dollars from streaming alone, an artist needs roughly twenty five to thirty million annual streams. For the vast majority of creators, that is an unreachable mountain.

    Now change the math.

    One thousand superfans.
    Each spending one hundred dollars a year through memberships, limited releases, live experiences, or direct support.

    Total revenue. One hundred thousand dollars.

    Which feels more achievable. Convincing one thousand people to care deeply, or convincing twenty five million strangers to stay for thirty one seconds.

    This model only works if you own the relationship.

    Which brings us to the three non-negotiable assets of the mid-tier artist.

    Your Three Sovereign Assets

    An owned list
    Your email or SMS list is your sovereign territory. It is the only channel that allows you to bypass rented platforms and shifting algorithms.

    Clean metadata
    Your ISRC codes are your modern identifiers. If the data is unclear or incomplete, money does not disappear loudly. It leaks quietly.

    A human moat
    AI can generate technically perfect music in seconds. It cannot tell the story of why you wrote a song at three in the morning in a damp room. That context builds trust. Trust converts listeners into long term supporters. That is your moat.

    The Bottom Line

    In 2026, the most dangerous place to be is visible but structurally weak.

    Do not let the pursuit of attention replace the pursuit of durability.

    Being a mid-tier artist is not a consolation prize. It is often the most sustainable outcome. It means you control your time. You retain ownership. You build a future that does not depend on constant permission.

    Stop chasing virality.
    Start building something that lasts.

    The shift from artist to sovereign business owner is slow, uncomfortable work. But it is also the work that allows careers to compound quietly over time.

    The future does not belong to the loudest artist. It belongs to the most prepared one.

  • Why Most Artists Discover Publishing Too Late

    Publishing isn’t a problem until it’s a crisis. Here is why most artists miss the foundation until the house is already shaking.

    For most artists, the first lesson in publishing isn’t a lecture: it’s a lost royalty. It isn’t a choice; it’s a missed opportunity.

    Most artists do not ignore publishing because they are careless. They ignore it because no one explains it at the right time.

    Publishing rarely enters the conversation when music is being created. It usually appears much later, after a song has travelled further than expected, or after money feels inconsistent, or after someone asks a question the artist cannot confidently answer.

    • Who owns this?
    • Who controls this?
    • Who gets paid when this is used?

    By the time those questions arrive, the damage is often already done.

    The Early Career Blind Spot

    In the early stages, focus is naturally on the visible things. Writing better songs. Recording. Releasing. Building an audience. Getting noticed. These are tangible milestones and they feel urgent.

    Publishing does not feel urgent at that stage. It feels abstract. Administrative. Something to deal with later. And because nothing appears to be broken, it is easy to assume nothing is wrong.

    But publishing is not a problem that announces itself early. It is a foundation that quietly decides how far your work can travel without friction.

    Why Publishing Feels Invisible Until It Isn’t

    Publishing sits behind the scenes. You do not hear it. You do not see it on streaming dashboards. You do not feel it when a song is released.

    You feel it only when your work starts being used, presenting itself as a sudden, pressing need for an answer you do not have.

    • A song gets covered.
    • A track is performed live abroad.
    • A reel travels faster than expected.
    • A sync opportunity appears.
    • A platform asks for clarity before moving forward.

    That is when publishing stops being theoretical and starts being very real. Unfortunately, that is also when most artists realise they do not fully understand what they own, what they have assigned, or what they have never registered at all.

    The Cost of Arriving Late

    Discovering publishing late does not mean you earn zero. It means you earn unpredictably.

    • Leakage: Money is generated, but it has no path back to you.
    • Friction: A sync supervisor wants your song for a Netflix show, but they can’t find the split sheet. They move to the next artist.
    • The Momentum Tax: You spend your “breakout year” cleaning up legal messes instead of writing your next hit.

    In many cases, the music is doing its job. The system around it is not. This is where careers quietly lose momentum. Not because of talent. Not because of effort. But because the backend was never designed to support growth.

    Publishing Is Not About Control. It Is About Clarity.

    There is a common fear that publishing means giving something away or locking yourself into rigid structures. In reality, good publishing does the opposite.

    It gives clarity on ownership. It creates traceability across territories. It ensures credit travels with the work. It allows money to find its way back, even when usage happens far from where the song was created.

    Publishing is not about restriction. It is about readiness.

    Why This Keeps Repeating

    The reason artists keep discovering publishing late is structural.

    1. Education focuses on creation, not exploitation.
    2. Platforms reward speed, not preparation.
    3. Early income masks long term leakage.
    4. Success often arrives before systems do.

    By the time publishing feels important, artists are already running. Stopping to fix foundations feels risky, even though not fixing them is far riskier.

    A Better Moment to Start Thinking

    The best time to understand publishing is not after a hit. It is not after a deal. It is not after a dispute. It is when nothing feels urgent yet.

    • When you still have space to make decisions calmly.
    • When ownership conversations are simpler.
    • When registrations are clean.
    • When future growth will not stress test weak structures.

    Publishing is easiest to set up before momentum arrives. It is hardest to repair once momentum exposes the gaps.

    A Closing Thought

    Most artists do not discover publishing too late because they failed to care. They discover it too late because the industry taught them to care about it last.

    But careers that last are rarely built by doing everything louder. They are built by quietly putting the right systems in place early enough.

    The first step out of this cycle is not a complex contract. It is a simple audit.

    Day 1: Open a document. List your songs. For each one, write down:

    • Who wrote it?
    • Who owns the recording?
    • Is it registered with a performance rights society?

    The gaps in that list are your starting point.

    If you are an artist, songwriter, or label thinking about the long term life of your catalog, this is the moment to pause and look at the foundations.

    I work with creators and rights holders to bring clarity to ownership, publishing, and backend systems before growth exposes the gaps.

    Start with structure. Build with intention.

  • When Machines Compose: The Human Authorship Dilemma

    If AI is trained on human music, shouldn’t credit and compensation travel back to the humans, not just the algorithms?

    Copyright law has traditionally protected work that arises from human effort, intention, and creative judgment. In simple terms, it safeguards expression that can be traced back to a conscious human act.

    This is where AI complicates things.

    When a piece of music sounds indistinguishable from something a person might have composed, but the process behind it is largely automated, where do we draw the line for authorship? At what point does human involvement meaningfully shape the outcome, and when does it become closer to operating a tool?

    If a creator tweaks a prompt, refines a few words, or nudges a model in a particular direction, does that intervention qualify as creative authorship? Or is it simply configuring a system rather than creating a work?

    These questions may feel theoretical today, but they sit at the heart of how copyright will need to evolve. The law cannot rely only on how human the final output appears. It has to examine where creative judgment actually resides.

    A Lesson From Recreated Works

    The music industry already offers a useful reference point.

    Take Ek Ho Gaye Hum Aur Tum from the film Bombay. The song was composed by A. R. Rahman, written by Mehboob, and sung by Remo Fernandes. Years later, when The Humma Song was recreated for OK Jaanu, the system did not erase the original work.

    Rahman’s authorship remained intact. Mehboob continued to be credited as the lyricist. The recreated version openly acknowledged its lineage, even while adding new performers, new production layers, and a contemporary sound.

    What changed was the expression.
    What did not change was the origin.

    That distinction matters.

    The recreated version extended the life of the work without disconnecting it from its source. Credit flowed backward as well as forward. Royalties followed attribution. This was not just ethical. It was good system design.

    Now imagine applying that same logic to AI generated music.

    If an AI generated track were required to transparently declare its source material and lineage, a composer sitting in a small town like Chaibasa in Jharkhand could still be credited and paid if fragments of their work informed a track released by an artist in Spain or anywhere else in the world.

    That is the real opportunity here. Not erasure, but inclusion. Not fear, but design.

    Where AI Forces a New Question

    Copyright law protects works that arise from human labour, effort, and creative judgment. AI challenges this not because the output looks human, but because the process often is not.

    Changing a sentence in a prompt or adjusting parameters may influence the result, but influence alone is not the same as authorship. The difficult task ahead is defining where human creativity meaningfully shapes the outcome, and where it stops.

    This distinction matters because without it, we risk either denying protection to genuine human creativity or granting ownership where little creative judgment actually exists.

    Global Signals Are Already Emerging

    Around the world, the industry is responding in fragmented but revealing ways.

    Bandcamp has taken a strict position by banning AI generated music entirely from its platform. Deezer has begun tagging AI generated tracks and is experimenting with systems to prevent AI driven streaming fraud from distorting royalties. Governments like the United Kingdom have publicly acknowledged the need to revisit copyright frameworks after strong pushback from creators.

    These are not theoretical discussions. Platforms and policymakers are already shaping how AI music will be treated in practice, even as the law struggles to keep pace.

    The Indian Context

    In India, this conversation is still taking shape, but it has clearly begun.

    Government bodies and policy groups have started releasing discussion papers and consultation notes examining how artificial intelligence intersects with copyright, licensing, and creator remuneration. These early signals reflect an acknowledgement that existing frameworks may not fully address the realities of AI assisted creation.

    As of January 2026, no country has enacted a comprehensive AI specific copyright law. However, several jurisdictions, including India, are actively debating possible approaches. The focus so far has been on understanding authorship, accountability, and how value should flow when human creativity and machine systems operate together.

    This moment presents an opportunity. India can learn from global debates while designing frameworks that protect creators without resisting technological progress.

    A Question Worth Sitting With

    The question is no longer whether machines can create convincing music. They already can.

    The real question is whether our copyright systems are prepared to recognise, measure, and protect human creativity when it operates alongside machines rather than in isolation.

    If we get this right, AI does not have to weaken creative economies. It could strengthen them, especially for creators who have historically remained invisible or underpaid.

    But that only happens if we design for clarity, not convenience.

    And that work, like most foundational work in music, happens quietly.

    As technology evolves, how will you define your own authorship in the music you create?

  • What Actually Moves a Music Career Forward (And What Just Looks Busy)

    Every January brings a familiar surge.
    New plans are made. New releases are scheduled. A collective energy pushes everyone to start something, anything.

    But after years in this business, I have learned that the most important question to ask right now is not “What’s next?”

    It is “What actually matters?”

    Before the year’s momentum fully takes over, here is a lens worth applying to everything you do. It is the difference between what moves a career forward and what simply creates the appearance of progress.

    They are not the same thing.

    What Actually Moves a Music Career Forward in 2026 | Beat Street Music

    Activity Is Easy to Measure. Progress Is Not.

    Activity gives you quick feedback.
    A release date. A social post. A show. A spike in streams. A comment. A like.

    Progress is slower and quieter.
    It shows up as cleaner ownership. Clearer rights. Better decisions. Fewer surprises later.

    Most people default to activity because it feels productive.
    Progress often feels uncomfortable because it forces questions we would rather postpone.

    Am I truly in control of what I have created?
    Do I understand where my money actually comes from?
    If a real opportunity landed tomorrow, would I be ready?

    Where Careers Quietly Stall

    Very few careers stall because the music stops being good.

    They stall because rights were never properly clarified.
    Because publishing was delayed or misunderstood.
    Because metadata stayed messy for too long.
    Because ownership was assumed instead of documented.
    Because backend decisions were always deferred to the next release.

    None of this feels urgent in the moment.
    That is precisely why it is dangerous.

    The cost does not appear today.
    It appears later, when deals slow down, when income feels unpredictable, or when an opportunity requires answers you are not prepared to give.

    The Trap of Looking Busy

    There is a subtle trap in modern music culture where visibility can feel like progress. Releasing more can feel like building. Being everywhere can feel like momentum.

    But without a solid structure underneath, all of this resets faster than it compounds.

    Busy careers often restart from zero.
    Sustainable careers build in layers.

    The difference is not effort.
    It is intention.

    What Actually Moves Things Forward

    Real progress in a music career usually looks quiet.

    It looks like knowing exactly what you own and where it lives, across recordings, compositions, and live usage.
    It is understanding how your music earns money across platforms and territories.
    It is cleaning up splits before they become disputes.
    It is making fewer releases with clearer purpose.
    It is choosing partnerships from a place of knowledge, not urgency.

    This work rarely trends.
    It rarely goes viral on its own.

    But it is what allows moments of visibility, usage, and success to actually convert into lasting value.

    A Different Way to Think About Progress

    Progress is not how often you release.
    Progress is how little breaks when something finally works.

    It is how ready you are when momentum arrives.
    It is how much friction you have removed before growth tests your structure.

    This is why some careers compound quietly over time, while others keep restarting despite undeniable talent and effort.

    A Closing Thought

    If your career feels busy but not directional, the answer is rarely to do more.

    It is to pause long enough to see clearly.
    It is to fix what you have been stepping around.
    It is to strengthen what you have been leaning on without checking.

    The work that actually moves a music career forward rarely announces itself with fanfare.

    But it is the reason some careers last.

  • Before 2026 Begins: A Few Quiet Truths About Music Careers

    The end of the year has a strange way of slowing everything down.

    The releases thin out. The emails pause. The timelines soften.

    And in that quiet, a few truths become harder to ignore. Not trends. Not predictions. Just things most people in music already feel, but rarely articulate.

    Before 2026 begins, here are a few of those truths.

    1. Momentum Is Not the Same as Direction

    Many music careers look active from the outside. Songs are releasing. Content is flowing. Shows are happening.

    But activity without direction eventually creates fatigue. If you have ever felt busy but strangely stuck, it is usually not because you are not working hard enough. It is because momentum is doing all the driving, and intention is sitting quietly in the back seat.

    2026 will reward fewer moves made with more clarity.

    2. Creativity Rarely Fails. Structure Quietly Does

    Most careers do not stall because the music stops being good.

    They stall because rights were never fully understood. Because publishing was delayed or ignored. Because ownership was assumed, not documented. Because royalties became “something to deal with later.”

    Later always arrives. It looks like an unexpected sync offer you cannot accept because the rights are unclear. It feels like missing royalty statements for uses you cannot trace.

    Structure is not the opposite of creativity. It is what allows creativity to survive success, scale, and time.

    3. Independence Is Not About Doing Everything Alone

    There is a romantic idea in music that independence means handling everything yourself.

    In reality, sustainable independence comes from knowing what you should own, what you should outsource, and what you should never leave unclear. It is about having a clean map of your own catalog so you can partner from a position of knowledge, not need.

    Control does not mean isolation. It means visibility, documentation, and informed decisions.

    4. The Work No One Applauds Matters the Longest

    Listeners remember songs. Creators remember moments.

    But careers are often decided by the invisible work. The clean credits. The accurate metadata. The clear splits. The timely registrations. The thoughtful agreements. The hour spent untangling a collaborator’s PRO data. The spreadsheet that maps songs to royalties.

    This work is rarely glamorous. It does not trend. It does not go viral.

    But it is the reason some careers compound quietly while others keep restarting from zero.

    5. 2026 Will Not Punish You for Going Slower

    There is no universal race.

    Some of the strongest music businesses are built by people who paused long enough to clean their backend, rethink their release logic, understand their revenue paths, and simplify instead of expand.

    Going slower, when done intentionally, often leads to longer careers. It is how you build something that lasts beyond the next algorithm change.

    A Closing Thought

    As the year ends, this may not be the moment to plan aggressively. It may simply be the moment with a notebook and three questions.

    What do I actually own?
    What do I truly understand?
    What deserves fixing before I add more?

    2026 does not need grand resolutions. It needs quieter clarity.

    And sometimes, that is the most strategic work of all.

  • Your 2026 Music Business Isn’t a Gig. It’s an Ecosystem.

    For independent artists, composers, and labels, next year’s success won’t come from one viral stream. It will come from building something more resilient. Something where every part of your work supports the others. A living ecosystem.

    If you feel like you’re running in place, you’re not alone. Chasing algorithm updates, watching tiny royalty sums, and feeling the weight of wearing every hat from creator to CEO. It’s exhausting.

    But what if the goal for 2026 changed? What if we stopped just chasing the next trend and started constructing a smarter, more durable structure?

    After years in the engine room of rights and revenue, I see three pillars that need to connect. They are the foundation, the stage, and the story. When they work together, you stop surviving season to season. You start building a legacy.

    Pillar One: Your Foundation. Owned Assets and Professional Frameworks.

    This is the part we rarely celebrate but cannot live without. It is the unshakable ground floor of your entire operation.

    Think of your mastered recordings and registered compositions as your core assets. Distribution is not just uploading. It is the strategic placement of those assets across the global map. Publishing is not boring paperwork. It is the vigilant system that protects your song’s value and ensures it gets paid wherever it travels.

    This is where perspective matters. My work has been inside the engine room itself, at the Indian Performing Right Society. I have seen firsthand how music societies function, how data flows, and where gaps appear. This is not theoretical knowledge. It is practical, ground level experience in how royalties are supposed to travel and why they sometimes get lost. This insight is what we apply to your catalogue.

    This is the work of clean metadata, of unambiguous songwriter splits, of navigating global collection networks with an insider’s map. It is the silent, professional machinery that must hum perfectly in the background. When it does, you have a foundation of clarity and control. You know what you own, where it earns, and how the money flows back to you. This certainty is what lets you build upward without fear.

    Pillar Two: Your Stage. The Live and Direct Experience.

    A strong foundation begs for a stage. While the digital world is essential, we are witnessing a powerful pull toward the real. Listeners are craving genuine connection, and the market for authentic live experiences is responding.

    This pillar is about translating your online presence into physical resonance. It is about seeing a live show not as a one off gig, but as a strategic engine. An event is a powerful moment to solidify your community, create direct revenue outside the streaming pipeline, and generate the kind of authentic content that fuels everything else.

    But bridging the artist’s world with the logistical and promotional reality of live performance is its own discipline. It requires a different kind of strategy, one that views your stage presence as a core, integrated part of your business, not a separate adventure.

    Pillar Three: Your Story. The Strategic Narrative.

    The foundation and the stage need a unifying vision. This is your strategic narrative. This is the work that connects separate actions into a coherent and compelling journey for your audience.

    It is the understanding that a new release fuels the story for an event. That the energy from that event then amplifies the next release cycle. It is about creative partnership, ensuring every piece, every song, every performance, fits into a larger, more meaningful picture of who you are as an artist.

    Without this guiding vision, you have a series of tactics. With it, you have a legacy in the making.

    Why This Ecosystem is Your 2026 Advantage.

    The true power lies in the synergy. Imagine this flow. Your professionally managed recordings and publishing generate data and revenue. That intelligence helps plan a targeted live showcase. The energy and content from that showcase then feeds and grows your audience for the next release. The cycle reinforces itself.

    Managing these pillars in silos creates friction. Opportunities fall through the gaps. The modern advantage belongs to those who see their career as a single, interconnected ecosystem.

    This is the work that excites me now. It is the work of architecture. Not just administering rights, but helping you build a resilient structure. A structure where your musical assets are meticulously managed, and your live presence is strategically developed, all woven into one story.

    If you are looking at the new year and thinking about building this kind of integrated future, let us talk about how to connect these pillars. The blueprint awaits.

    Let’s build your ecosystem.

  • The Sync Singularity: When Your Music is the New Territory in an $82 Billion War

    A music blog is perhaps the last place you expected to read about an $82.7 billion corporate bidding war. But this week, as Netflix and Paramount fought over Warner Bros., something quiet happened. The future of music in film and television was rewritten.

    For a moment, look past the staggering numbers and the headlines about streaming subscribers. This is not a story about screens. It is a story about sonic real estate.

    The real prize is not the Warner Bros. studio lot. It is the keys to storytelling universes that have shaped our culture for decades. Harry Potter. Game of Thrones. Batman. The true asset is not just the film reel but the score. It is the emotional DNA of these worlds, written in melody and theme. The victor in this fight will control some of the most valuable musical properties ever created.

    This is not just a media merger. It is a fundamental shift in power. For composers, publishers, and anyone whose living is tied to the music of visual media, the ground has moved beneath your feet.

    The Composer’s New Reality: Fewer Doors, Harder Knocks

    Consider the journey of an independent composer. For years, it has been a path of pitching, building relationships, and finding a creative home across a landscape of different studios. Each studio was a potential patron with its own taste and vision.

    Now imagine that landscape shrinking. Fewer doors to knock on. Fewer distinct creative voices calling the shots. This consolidation risks what Hollywood unions already fear. A narrowing of vision. A pressure to conform to a new corporate “sound” rather than chase a unique musical voice.

    It also reshapes the negotiation table. When there are only a handful of global buyers for your talent, who holds the leverage? The promise of backend royalties from global streaming, the lifeblood of a composer’s long term income, may face new pressures under the banner of corporate “synergy” and cost saving.

    The Publisher’s Dilemma: A Catalog Locked in a Vault or Opened to the World?

    Warner’s vaults hold not just films, but one of the world’s great music publishing catalogs. Iconic themes, legendary scores. The question now is one of strategy.

    Will the new owner treat this music as a exclusive asset, locking it down to fuel only their own productions? Or will they license it widely, seeing value in letting their musical IP score stories told by others?

    For other publishers and labels, this creates a new benchmark. The value of a clear, clean, and easily licensable catalog has never been higher. In a world of corporate giants, your ability to prove what you own and make it simple to license is your greatest strength. Messy metadata is no longer an administrative headache. It is a strategic failure.

    The Independent’s Strategy: How to Thrive When the Giants Dance

    This news might feel overwhelming. But within this shift lies immense opportunity for the prepared creator.

    First, own your signature. In an age of homogenized corporate IP, a distinctive, authentic musical voice is your most powerful asset. Double down on what makes your composition unique. That originality cannot be replicated by an algorithm or a boardroom.

    Second, build your own audience. Your direct connection to listeners is your fortress. A corporate studio can own a soundtrack, but they cannot own the relationship between you and the people who love your work. Cultivate that community through live performance, direct communication, and shared stories. This is your unassailable ground.

    Third, treat your work as strategic IP. Every composition is more than a piece of art. It is a piece of intellectual property. Understand its ownership, its rights chain, and its potential value. Approach your catalog not just as a creative portfolio, but as a strategic business asset.

    The Sound of the Future

    The $82 billion battle for Warner Bros. is a signal flare. It tells us that in the new economy of attention, music is not a secondary element. It is central to the value of a story. It is territory worth fighting for.

    The next decade will not be won by those with the biggest vaults, but by those with the clearest strategy. The composers, publishers, and rights holders who understand that their work sits at this crucial intersection of art, emotion, and commerce will be the ones who shape the future.

    They will be the ones who ensure that as the giants consolidate, the music itself does not become a casualty.

    If you are a composer, publisher, or label looking to navigate this new landscape, to audit your rights, and to build a strategy that turns this consolidation into your opportunity, let us talk. The future of your music is worth planning for.

  • The Wrapped Paradox: Why We Celebrate the Metrics That Don’t Pay Us

    Every December your feed turns blue and green. Friends, fans, and fellow artists proudly share their Spotify Wrapped. It’s colourful, playful, and instantly recognisable. A quick snapshot of everyone’s year in music.

    For artists this ritual is even more emotional. We wait for our Artist Wrapped with the same excitement we had before a big report card in school. We share the minutes streamed, the new countries reached, and screenshots of fans who had us on repeat. It feels like proof that the music connected. Proof that the year meant something.

    But here is the quiet contradiction many artists feel. The same numbers we celebrate with so much pride translate into very little money. One analysis estimated that it takes around three hundred streams to earn enough for a cup of coffee.

    So why do we still celebrate it? And what should we really be asking Spotify for?

    The psychology behind sharing

    Sharing your Wrapped is not shallow or naive. It’s a smart move in a world where visibility drives opportunity.

    Wrapped has become a cultural moment. It’s the one day when everyone talks about music in the same format. By joining in artists place themselves inside a global conversation. They use high quality visuals made by Spotify to show their presence.

    It also works as career collateral. Screenshots of top listeners or global reach become social proof. They help with booking shows, negotiating brand work, and showing publishers or labels that the audience is growing. When financial transparency is missing these metrics become the next best credential.

    The real issue: celebration without clarity

    This is where things get complicated.

    Wrapped shows attention but hides value. It answers the question “who listened?” but leaves out the answer to the real business question “what did that listening earn?”.

    Imagine a shopkeeper being told how many people walked by the store but not what they bought. That is what Wrapped feels like for many artists.

    What artists actually need is a version of Wrapped that adds clarity. A year-end report that shows:

    Actual earnings attribution
    A breakdown of how each stream turned into publishing, mechanical, and performance royalties.

    Fan pathway insights
    Not just where listeners are located but how many converted into real supporters. Ticket buyers, newsletter sign-ups, merch clicks.

    Campaign understanding
    Which release created lasting listeners and which one created only a one week spike. This is what turns data into actual strategy.

    The ecosystem around your royalties

    Your per-stream royalty is not random. It comes from a large shared pool. And this pool is constantly under pressure. A huge volume of low-quality AI generated tracks have entered the system over the past two years. Spotify removed millions of such uploads last year.

    Every time you see your minutes streamed it’s important to understand the environment behind that number. Fighting for a transparent Business Wrapped is also fighting for a system where human music is recognised and valued.

    What you can do this December

    Share your Wrapped. Enjoy the cultural moment. Let it open doors for you.

    But also ask the deeper questions. Talk about what you truly need as a creator. Encourage conversations around transparency. Advocate for a year-end view that shows earnings, impact, and real connections.

    The future belongs to artists who understand their data as confidently as they understand their craft. The metrics that matter most are the ones that show not just that you were heard, but that you were valued.

    If you are an artist or label ready to move beyond celebration and build a clear data-driven plan for sustainable growth, I’d be happy to help you get started.

  • The Blueprint is Signed: What the AI Music Deal Means for You

    If you blinked this week, you might have missed a turning point for the entire music industry.

    Warner Music Group and the artist platform Udio have not just settled their lawsuit. They have also announced a strategic partnership. Around the same time, Warner settled with and invested in Suno as well. Suno and Udio now operate under a shared parent company that is shaping the way AI music platforms evolve, even though they continue to function as separate products.

    This is not a surrender. It is a strategic blueprint. After months of lawsuits and uncertainty, a major label has drawn a map for the future. The message is clear. The age of AI as a free for all is ending. The age of negotiation has begun.

    But what does this high level deal mean for you on the ground? Let us look beyond the headlines.

    For Major Labels: A New Blueprint and a New Revenue Stream

    For Warner, this moment is a strong validation of their legal strategy. Their goal was never to destroy AI. It was to bring it under a licensing framework. The outcome is a new, B2B style revenue channel that recognises the value of their catalogue. It also gives their artists the ability to opt in.

    This is a precedent. It is a template the rest of the majors are likely to follow, shifting the industry from confrontation to structured collaboration.

    For Artists and Composers: The Double Edged Sword of Opt In

    This is where the deal becomes personal. The promise of opt in control is a major win for rights, but it also introduces new decisions for every creator.

    You are no longer just a composer, singer or producer. You are now the negotiator of your own AI likeness. Each time an offer comes your way, you will face a fundamental question. Are you comfortable licensing your voice, your style or your storytelling patterns to an AI model? What is the right price? What are the long term implications?

    This new layer of choice is powerful, but it also demands business clarity. You need to know your ownership, your rights and your boundaries long before a contract appears.

    For the Entire Ecosystem: The Live Experience Just Became More Valuable

    There is another detail that did not get enough attention. The parent company of Udio and Suno has also acquired Songkick from Warner.

    This is not a small move. It signals something deeper. As the digital world fills with AI generated content, the live experience becomes the most valuable expression of what is real. The energy of a crowd, the crack in a singer’s voice, the shared emotion of a performance, these are things no algorithm can replicate.

    The acquisition suggests a future in which AI music creation and the fan journey are connected. It hints that live events will become the ultimate authenticator of an artist’s identity.

    Your Playbook for the New Reality

    So what should you do now?

    Audit Your Rights
    Your leverage in the opt in era depends entirely on knowing what you own. Make sure your metadata is accurate and your ownership chain is clean.

    Develop Your AI Strategy
    Think through your boundaries. Under what conditions would you license your voice or style? Having clarity today will protect you tomorrow.

    Double Down on Your Humanity
    Invest in live performances and community building. In a world filled with synthetic music, the most valuable thing you can offer is your real presence.

    The Warner Udio deal is not the end of the story. It is only the end of the beginning. The rules are being written right now. The question is whether you want to be part of that process.

    If you are an artist, composer or label navigating this new landscape and want to build a strategy that protects your work and your value, let us talk. The future is not something that happens to you. It is something you build.

  • Beyond the AI Panic: The Inevitable Settlement and the New Music Economy

    If the headlines around AI music feel like a chaotic storm, you are not alone. The narrative is one of disruption, of machines replacing artists, of a future where creativity is automated.

    But if you listen closely, beneath the noise, you can hear a familiar rhythm. We have danced to this tune before.

    The current upheaval is not the end of the song. It is a tense, dramatic bridge. And history tells us exactly where the melody is heading.

    We Have Been Here Before: From Lawsuits to Lifeline

    Cast your mind back to the early 2000s. The music industry was in a panic. A new technology called streaming was emerging, and the initial reaction from major labels was not excitement, but lawsuits. The very idea of accessing music instead of owning it was seen as a threat to the entire economic model.

    It took nearly a decade after the Napster panic for Spotify to emerge: not as a rebel, but as a licensed, fully negotiated platform built on the very agreements that lawsuits forced into existence.

    Sound familiar?

    Today, for all its flaws, streaming is the bedrock of the global music business. The “disruption” was negotiated, regulated, and integrated. The lawsuits were not the end of the story. They were the opening gambit in a long negotiation that ended with labels and publishers securing their share of the pie.

    The current standoff with AI companies like Suno and Udio is Chapter One of the same old playbook. The flurry of lawsuits from giants like Universal Music Group is not a sign of impending doom. It is the necessary, fiery beginning of the process that will force a settlement. Licensing frameworks will be built. Royalty structures will be defined. AI music generation will not be destroyed. It will be domesticated, becoming a regulated, and ultimately, a licensed part of our ecosystem.

    The Ethical Tool: When the Composer Becomes a Curator

    Once the legal and financial dust settles, what emerges is not a wasteland, but a new toolkit. AI will shed its villainous cloak and become the most powerful creative assistant a musician has ever had.

    Imagine a composer facing a blank page. Instead of silence, they can ask an AI to generate a hundred melodic ideas in the style of Hindustani classical music fused with modern synth pop. The AI produces the raw material. The human composer listens, feels, and selects the one fragment that sparks a genuine emotion. They then refine it, pour their soul into it, and make it theirs.

    This is the future. It is not “Human versus AI.” It is “Human plus AI.” The value will shift from the mere generation of sound to the irreplaceable human acts of curation, emotional intention, and storytelling. The artist becomes a director, guiding the technology to serve their vision.

    The Quantified Soul: Why Live Events Will Become the Ultimate Currency

    This is the most profound shift of all. As the digital world becomes saturated with artificially generated content, the scarcity and value of “the real” will skyrocket.

    You can stream an AI generated track a million times. But you cannot download the shared energy of a live concert. You cannot algorithmically replicate the sight of a singer’s sweat and tears under the stage lights, the raw crack in their voice during an emotional high note, or the collective roar of a crowd feeling a beat in unison.

    This is the magic that no machine can copy.

    In an age of digital abundance, live events will become the ultimate authenticator. They will be the undeniable proof of an artist’s “soul.” The connection forged in a physical space, between real people, will become the most powerful brand builder and the most valuable revenue stream. The stage will no longer be just a promotional tool. It will be the main event.

    The Great Rebalancing

    The chaos we see today is temporary. It is the sound of an industry recalibrating. We are moving towards a new equilibrium. A digital realm where ethically sourced AI serves as a collaborator, and a physical realm where human connection becomes the most prized asset.

    The future belongs to those who see this not as a battle to be won, but as a balance to be struck.

    Your Call to Action

    The landscape is shifting, but the destination is becoming clear. For forward thinking artists and labels, the strategy is dual. Master the new tools and double down on the timeless value of human connection.

    If you are building a music business and want to navigate this transition from rights management in the AI era to monetising the irreplaceable live experience, let us discuss. The future is not something that happens to us. It is something we build.