Water & Music

Test your knowledge on the latest music industry trends: 🧐 What percentage of songs on streaming platforms received 1,000 or fewer plays in 2023? 🧐 How much did average ticket prices for top tours increase from 2019 to 2023? 🧐 What's the average number of songs created daily on the top music AI apps? 🧐 What's the most-represented genre among the top 30 festival acts of the last 5 years? 🧐 How much revenue do major labels like Universal Music Group make from merch? Curious about the answers? Follow @dailymusicdata on Instagram for these insights and more! We share one curated music industry data point every single weekday, along with our brief analysis on why it matters — helping you stay informed on need-to-know trends in the evolving music and tech landscape. Don't miss out on these essential stats — follow us now and boost your industry knowledge today. #musicindustry #musicbiz #musicbusiness #musictech #musicdata #datainsights #dailymusicdata

Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of music data analytics tools available? Unsure which tool is the ideal fit for your needs? Water & Music is here to help! We're thrilled to announce the launch of our new database featuring over 70 essential tools for navigating the complex world of music data. Built upon our 2023 Music Industry Data Tools market map, this exclusive resource includes more than 15 new additions, ensuring you have access to the most comprehensive and up-to-date solutions for your data-driven music strategies. With our database, you can: 🔍 Search and filter tools based on your specific use cases 📈 Benchmark potential success with real-world case studies 📱 Identify tools with mobile functionality for on-the-go access Whether you're a seasoned A&R, a data-driven marketer, or a tech-savvy artist manager, this database is designed to help you make informed decisions and stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving industry. 🔒 Access is limited to Water & Music members only. Not a member yet? Now's the perfect time to join our community of industry leaders and innovators. #musicindustry #musicdata #musictech #musicbiz #musicbusiness #data #datastrategy #innovation

Just published my own analysis on the significance of Suno's $125M funding round for music-tech, exclusively for Water & Music members. A lot of takes on Suno's $125M round emphasize how the company has virtually no official endorsement from the music industry, and is likely trained on copyrighted data. While these are critical factors to consider and I do mention these points in my analysis, I decided to put things in perspective, and focus instead on the history of music-tech startup funding at large — and why Suno represents a watershed moment in the evolution of this category. Suno's round is not only the largest investment ever in a music AI startup, but is also one of only four music-tech mega-rounds ($100M+) to take place after 2018. In contrast, 16 music-tech mega-rounds took place from 2010–2018, focused primarily on music streaming and consumer hardware companies (Spotify, SoundCloud, Sonos, Beats, etc.). The music-tech market has since cooled down significantly, due to a mix of factors such as the COVID pandemic, slowing growth in subscription streaming revenue, industry consolidation, costly music licensing fees, and uncertain macroeconomic conditions. Suno's round is the latest milestone in a new era of investment in the category, focused on areas ripe for disruption beyond traditional music streaming and consumption models (think live events, social video/UGC, fandom, and, in this case, artistry itself). Read my full analysis below — curious to hear your thoughts! #musicbiz #musictech #ai #musicai #aimusic #musicindustry #musicbusiness #suno

Our new IG series, Daily Music Data, addresses a recurring challenge we’ve noticed in the music industry: The lack of a single, accessible, and easily searchable repository of actionable data on the music business. Critical industry data remains fragmented across various sources, including trade publications, company reports, and independent research firms. The rapid evolution of the music industry, driven by technological change, makes it especially challenging to keep a centralized resource like this up-to-date and relevant. Daily Music Data aims to solve this problem by building a curated collection of data-driven insights that are essential for understanding the modern music business. At Water & Music, we analyze a vast amount of industry data for our research, and have developed a unique ability to identify the most impactful and interesting findings – those that drive business decisions and generate new knowledge, rather than contributing to the noise. Every weekday at ~9AM ET, we'll share a carefully curated data point vetted by the Water & Music team, along with our brief analysis on why we feel it’s essential for understanding the modern music industry. If you're looking to stay ahead of the curve in music, data, and tech, with actionable, concise insights that you can digest in five minutes or less, this series is perfect for you. Read on below for more context on how we curate data: #musicindustry #musicbiz #musictech #musicdata #musicbusiness #data

Water & Music's State of Data in the Music Industry Survey has just hit 300 responses! 🎉 Thanks so much to everyone who has completed the survey, expressed your support, and shared the project with colleagues. The significant response indicates a clear demand for guidance and clarity on issues such as music data literacy/education, tool functionality, access/ingestion challenges, and more. We're excited to contribute meaningfully to the industry conversation once we share the full results. The survey will remain open for another 28 days (until June 14, 2024). Looking at the responses we have so far, we could use more input from the following groups to ensure as comprehensive of a representation of the music industry as possible: - Music distributors - Music publishers and PROs - Live events companies (venues, promoters, booking agencies) - Music streaming services and big-tech companies - Major labels If you know anyone in these groups who would be interested in taking this survey, please spread the word. The survey is 100% anonymous, and respondents receive a free PDF of Water & Music's 53-page Intro to Music Data series upon completion! #musicbiz #musictech #musicdata #musicindustry #musicbusiness #data #survey

I'm excited to announce Daily Music Data, a new pilot Instagram series from Water & Music! 🎉 This project addresses a recurring challenge I've noticed in the music industry: The lack of a single, accessible, and easily searchable repository of actionable data on the music business. Critical industry data remains fragmented across various sources, including trade publications, company reports, and independent research firms. The rapid evolution of the music industry, driven by technological change, makes it especially challenging to keep a centralized resource like this up-to-date and relevant. Daily Music Data aims to solve this problem by building a curated collection of data-driven insights that are essential for understanding the modern music business. At Water & Music, we analyze a vast amount of industry data for our research, and have developed a unique ability to identify the most impactful and interesting findings – those that drive business decisions and generate new knowledge, rather than contributing to the noise. Every weekday at ~9AM ET, we'll share a carefully vetted statistic on Daily Music Data, accompanied by our brief analysis of why it's important. We prioritize insights that are widely applicable across the industry, such as macro trends, precedent-setting deal terms, and data that clarifies noisy or misunderstood markets. We also provide a mix of evergreen and news-related data points, to balance short- and long-term industry timelines. If you're looking to stay ahead of the curve in music, data, and tech — with actionable, concise insights that you can digest in five minutes or less — this series is perfect for you. You can also consider Daily Music Data a free preview of our membership experience, which delves even deeper into the data behind music and tech, across company deals, startup investments, partnerships, and more. Give us a follow on Instagram at @dailymusicdata (direct link in the comments), and share your thoughts — or let us know if there's any juicy data you'd like us to feature! :) #musicbusiness #data #musicdata #musictech #musicindustry

Attention music industry professionals! 🗣️ We need your voice in shaping the future of music data. Data has become the lifeblood of the music industry, driving every aspect of the business from creation to distribution and monetization. However, there remains a lack of clear, unified understanding of how data truly impacts and transforms the nature of work in this field. To bridge this gap, Water & Music has partnered with Music Tomorrow to launch the 2024 State of Data in the Music Industry Survey — a comprehensive study exploring how professionals like you collect, manage, and leverage data across all verticals, job functions, and budgets. Whether you're a seasoned data expert or just starting to navigate the world of music analytics, we'd love to hear from you. Your responses will remain 100% anonymous, and will contribute to a groundbreaking report that will guide music data strategies for years to come. Click the link in the comments to participate in the survey. As a token of appreciation, upon completion, you'll receive a complimentary PDF of our 53-page Intro to Music Data series – a $300 value! 🎉 #MusicIndustry #MusicData #DataStrategy #DataAnalytics #MusicTech #MusicBiz

I'm thrilled to announce the launch of Water & Music's 2024 State of Data in the Music Industry Survey, in partnership with Music Tomorrow! Data is the heartbeat of the music industry — flowing through every aspect of the business, from creation to distribution and monetization. And yet, we lack a clear, unified understanding of how data truly impacts and transforms the nature of work in this field. Amidst hundreds of dashboards and spreadsheets, what data investments do music professionals think are actually worth it? What data do people in music need to do their job well, but still can't access? Which areas of music data have the greatest opportunity for improvement? Our comprehensive survey aims to capture a snapshot of how music industry professionals collect, manage, and leverage data across all verticals, job functions, and budgets. Whether you’re a full-stack data expert or feel overwhelmed by your Spotify dashboard — we want to hear from you! Our goal is to capture the full range of experiences with data in music, both positive and negative. Your responses will remain completely anonymous. You won't be required to disclose your employer at any point, and your answers will always remain private. If interested, you may provide your email address at the end of the survey for potential interview quotes in our final report, but this is entirely optional. As a token of appreciation for your time, upon completion you'll receive a free PDF of our 53-page Intro to Music Data series, which provides a comprehensive walkthrough of how music professionals use data to pitch artists, market new releases, scout talent, plan live events, and more. This report is a $300 value and is the core curriculum of our popular Music Marketing Data Bootcamp. Please spread the word to anyone in your network who's passionate about music, tech, and data — and let me know in the comments if you have any questions or feedback! #surveys #musicindustry #musicbiz #musictech #data #musicdata #datastrategy

James Blake’s launch with Vault is commendable for moving beyond critique and towards tangible, engaged experimentation with new solutions. But with history as our teacher, the notion that a direct artist subscription model is a template for the future of music as a whole is flawed. There’s a graveyard of attempts to scale direct artist subscriptions over the last decade, across sites like Patreon, Twitch, and the now-shuttered platforms Ampled and Drip. In almost all of these cases, there were ultimately misaligned expectations about what fans actually wanted, and/or a significant underestimation of the amount of effort it takes to maintain subscriber satisfaction under a recurring payment model. The reality is that James Blake isn’t most artists — and most artists don’t have the mindset, the energy, the resources, the fanbase, or the staff to make a direct subscription model work. Read more in our latest analysis below 👇 #musicbusiness #community #musictech #musicbiz #musicindustry #startups

The world of music AI tools has grown so much, Water & Music has upgraded from an infographic to a spreadsheet. That’s the listicle equivalent of getting a minivan for all the kids. It’s also a great overview of the state of the market now: what’s available, emerging, and making waves today. Honored to be mentioned another year! https://lnkd.in/eSTU-zBU #waterandmusic #cheriehu #musicai #audioresearch #tech #ai #soundseparation #musicresearch #musicprocessing #database