What to expect in 2022: Jay Gilbert shares his music industry predictions

Hypebot readers know Jay Gilbert as the cohost of the Music Business Weekly and Your Morning Coffee podcasts, but he’s also an industry veteran and highly respected music marketing guru.

Here are Jay Gilbert’s predictions for the music industry next year.

By Jay Gilbert of Label Logic and Your Morning Coffee

COVER ART COMES ALIVE

Motion graphics for track & album covers will gain traction as artists explore the medium. Apple recently announced that they have added animated album artwork with iOS 14.3 and macOS Big Sur 11.1. Apple posted “Album motion makes your album artwork come alive. Motion artwork provides a richer experience for your audience by helping to set a mood or accentuate the concept of an album, before anyone presses Play.”

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?

More and more artists are getting into the experiences game. Obvious things like Patreon, Cameo, OnlyFans and Thrillz.co.uk are generating meaningful revenue but artists are getting more creative with direct-to-fan offers, for example:

• Write a song with / for you
• Record a song for you
• Play on your recording
• Handwritten / signed lyrics
• Record shopping with the artist
• Private zoom sessions (private and with groups)
• Music lessons
• Play D&D with you
• Dinner with the artist
• House concerts

“IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY… IT’S ABOUT THE MONEY”

It’s the music BUSINESS so developing and middle class artists will continue to struggle making meaningful revenue from sales & streams alone.  More focus will be placed on innovating in areas like:

• Tipping. Supporting artists with virtual goods purchases and creative ways to “tip.” 

• Here is a good example of creative tipping Where’s Walden, the band, is offering fans the opportunity to “Treat the band to a tank of gas’” “Treat the band to a place to stay,” and “Treat the band to a meal.” 

• Music streaming platform Audiomack recently  launched a feature that lets fans fund artists directly by purchasing ‘support badges’ for song and album releases.

• Merch 
• Premium vinyl
• Live streamed shows 
• Publishing
• Sync
• Brand partnerships
• Social media and UGC monetization

THE BACKDOOR

Artists will continue to find audience growth success outside of the traditional label ecosystem. Platforms like Twitch, TikTok, Peloton etc. will launch and sustain more music careers. Gaming platforms like Roblox will continue to bring new meaning to “go to where the party is.”

SONGWRITERS FINALLY GET PAID

Songwriters don’t get paid when their work is played on the radio in the United States. People like Blake Morgan are on a mission to change that with #IRespetMusic and the American Music Fairness Act.

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) sets the rate that DSPs pay publishers / songwriters (CRB3 rate was set at 15.1% through 2022 but Spotify and Amazon are still appealing this decision). CRB4 is already heating up and will go into effect 2023 – 2027.

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is fighting to get the songwriters more. The DSPs are fighting to pay less. 

THE GOLD RUSH MATURES

I predict a few surprising deals from music IP investment and song management companies like Hipgnosis, KKR, BMG, Primary Wave etc. This side of the business is just getting warmed up and is not just about heritage artists.

• NFTs become standard practice for track and album release cycles. I think that you’ll begin to see less standalone big ticket drops and more mainstream NFTs to compliment releases.

• Look for more Virtual Artist releases and streaming success. The technology to bring these artists to the live concert world is here. Who will take this to the next level?