It’s no secret that the internet’s been the great leveler across many sectors, with no category leading the charge as fervently as the music industry. What’s believed to have resulted is a less “hit-driven” music economy, and one that allows smaller independent artists to shine in a light they previously haven’t had access to.
A new study by Merlin—a non-profit that works to ensure the rights and protections of indie artists, 22 of which have achieved number 1s in major territories under their umbrella—seems to confirm a lot of the guesstimates that watchers have had about the reshaping field. In the United States, for example, it should come as no surprise that the market share for independents is 57% greater for digital sales than physical ones, and the widespread appeal of Grammy winners like Arcade Fire or the unexpected chart-topping dominance of Adele would only confirm the findings.
The result is a flattening of the “long-tail” (or slow, steady sales of underground records, B-sides, etc.) that’s been assumed of the independent sector. It demonstrates that these acts can carry weight, and, more importantly, earn their keep financially.
“Merlin has in the past been vocal about services that launch with a few indies and expect their customers to be hoodwinked by a deal with an indie aggregator or two; or worse, who expect independents to accept what, in our judgment, must be inferior terms to those agreed with the majors,” Merlin CEO Charles Caldas tells me in an e-mail. “Or even worse, to believe that there is an ‘indie’ value which is somehow automatically inferior to that attached to repertoire from the majors.”
Of course, the chart success of a few independent acts is by no means definitive of a complete coup d’état; you still have your Gagas and Biebers who also leverage the flattening of the long-tail to garner fiercely devoted followings—and staggering amounts of money.
Which begets the question: Is an indie act still indie if they’re making boatloads of cash? Caldas appears to think so. “I think there is no doubt that the independent spirit is alive and well, and that their adaptability, creativity and progressive approach to the digital market is clearly reaping rewards,” he says.
“The field may be flatter, but the indies are finding the peaks in that field and scaling them with increasing regularity. I think the most apt way to describe independents at the moment is ‘successful.'”
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