A Record Label Is About To Overtake Personalities As Biggest YouTube Channel
The golden age of YouTube personalities may, it seems, be finally drawing to a close as creators burn out and corporations improve the implementation of their channels. One of the clearest signs of this shift is the impending de-throning of Swedish gamer PewDiePie, who currently maintains a whopping 76.4 subscribers, by an Indian music label/movie studio.
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Guest post by Bobby Owinski of Music 3.0
It seems like the days of the YouTube personality are slowly beginning to wane thanks to creator burnout and corporations getting better at implementing their channels. PewDiePie currently leads all others on the platform with an astounding 76.4 million channel subscribers, but that record may fall by the time you read this. What’s more interesting than the subscriber number is that another YouTube channel that’s about to overtake the Swedish gamer.
Chances are you never thought that a record label could actually be that popular, and you probably never guessed which one. T-Seriesis, a big Indian music label and movie studio, is actually is the leader as world’s largest music YouTube channel, but pretty soon it will become the leader period.
T-Seriesis is somewhat of a canary in the coal mine. The fact of the matter is that streaming hasn’t taken off in India yet, probably because there are only 300 million smartphones in a land of more than 1.4 billion people. Keep in mind that there are only 327 million people in the United States currently (a little more than 4% of the world’s population), so it won’t be long before there are more smartphones being used in India than there are people here.
According to industry analyst Mark Mulligan, there are only 215 million free streaming users in India in 2018 but only 1 million are paid subscribers for a total streaming revenue was just $130 million in 2017. That said, Spotify has yet to launch in the market, although that’s been reported to be coming soon.
India is the second largest market in the world, and one that Western music hasn’t penetrated very much. T-Seriesis shows just how big music can be in the country if it can be monetized. In the meantime, I’m sure the label is doing pretty well from YouTube channel revenue. Move over PewDiePie.
If the big labels would realise that not all music is American or American genres, they might get a chance to do better in Asian markets. What about artists who work with modern production and sounds but who use local rhythms, tuning systems, instruments and vocal styles? The big labels remain unimaginative and unwilling to take any risks. No real success ever had those lazy roots. Once some appropriate music is available (rather than endless, repetitive, derivative, pop r’n’b), it’ll be easier to get people’s attention. Then look at people’s income etc and come up with a localised business model that acknowledges that Indians, for example, can’t pay what Americans can pay.