A radio interface which displays listening methods.
Major labels notably have been in the driver’s seat of the recorded music business. With access to dynamic distribution channels, large promotional budgets, and keen marketing strategies, they have the power to bring artists to stardom globally. Major label’s social clout and relationships with radio had traditionally proven to have the greatest reach and highest probability of airtime. As the industry has evolved to online streaming, radio play has become obsolescent. Major labels have continued to evolve within the industry as streaming platforms have revolutionized the music business, but indie labels are beginning to catch up.
The 1960s Payola scheme has drastically changed the landscape of consumer and how they listen. Major record labels have been convicted of paying or bribing radio stations to play their artist’s music. Today’s content-based and digital streaming platforms have shifted the music industry from ownership to a more consumption-based model where audiences have the power to seek out talent and find independent artists attributed with creativity and uniqueness.
A user-created Spotify playlist.
This is a user-created Spotify playlist based on viral TikTok songs that has over 1,700,000 followers, that puts independent artists and artists signed to independent labels right up next to Harry Styles and Lil Nas X. Fame is no longer decided by major label executives; it’s decided by audiences.