Music

Goldman Sach issued an equity research report forecasting the music market growth by 2030 to hit $45 billion driven by 1.15 billion users paying for the streaming subscription.  The report finds 40 per cent of the penetration in developed markets like in the US and UK. The bank revised the number for paid streaming where it expected the subscriptions to generate $27.5 billion by 2030, and the growing number of subscribers in the emerging markets to generate 778 million.  The report claims Spotify and Apple Music will remain the market leaders and their share may decline with time, while, other global internet players like Facebook, Amazon and YouTube share may increase. Tencent Music will grow in China and worldwide to 23 percent from 11 percent, by 2030. 

Investing in music may not be the most obvious choice, but can be a good investment. The music industry continues to invest in artists, marketing and promotion. Most of the major labels have more than 7,500 artists on their lists and have more than tens of thousands signed to independent labels. The newest talent is what keeps the industry alive and interesting. 

Some music companies offer options to invest in new artists. The latest worldwide spending by record companies on artists across  ‘A&R’ and marketing/promotion finds a total investment of $5.8bn in 2017, nearly 30% on the previously published figure, for 2015 ($4.5bn).

Bandstocks made a public option where investment in an artist was made for £10 increments. When the funding reached its highest level, £100,000, the money was released for the use in recording albums. Investors received a copy of the artist’s album and were credited on the CD sleeve, whilst, also received a percentage of the profits from its sale and licensing. Investors are prioritised in booking tickets and were given prioritised opportunities to buy limited edition releases.