The Economist has a fantastic article about the state of the Music Industry. The arguments and convincing data all seem to say that the music industry isn’t in trouble, it’s just changing.

Consumers are, and already have welcomed this change, the Major Record labels are having a harder time adjusting… Yet they do see where the money is coming from.

Rising income from live performance, merchandising, sponsorship, publishing, online streaming and emerging markets has come to counterbalance losses from declining CD sales. As a result, some musicians are singing a different tune. Last year a new group, the Featured Artists Coalition, objected to government plans to punish file-sharers by suspending their broadband connections. Its leaders, including established artists such as Billy Bragg and Annie Lennox, argue that file-sharing is a useful form of promotion.

Between 1999 and 2009 concert-ticket sales in America tripled in value, from $1.5 billion to $4.6 billion. –The Economist

Publishing departments are now vital cash machines. Publishing supplied 29% of EMI’s revenues and 45% of its profits in the year to March 2010.

So what have we learned? Stay calm and carry on.

Keep making music, keep making video content, keep going. The old world is gone and never coming back. You know this they (old guard) do not. Use it to your advantage.

Take Control of Your Music
Voyno