Oversaturation of the Music Industry and Niche Marketing

Kinza Hagerup

Thesis
With technology growing and changing, anyone can
be come a pop star, create their own album, and
even be discovered on YouTube. It is possible now
more than ever to create and share music but at what
costs? The rate of music being produced is at an
alarming rate and what is that doing to our listeners?
How are fans of struggling artists able to sift
through all the sub par music to hear what they
want. Niche marketing has become a way for
smaller artists to get their music to their fans without
the help of major record labels.

The Past
Record labels, until recently, have been the main
way artists are able to get artists music heard to the
music. Why you might ask? They have the cash
flow to be able to afford things like studio time, tour,
merchandise, radio time, etc. A starving musician
does not have nearly the capitol to be able to take
this on.
The Present
What is going on today is that artists actually have a
say in how their music is being heard.
Spotify
SoundCloud
Vevo
Youtube
Pandora

One can no longer describe any musical style,

let alone a stylistic subset, as mainstream and
support that assertion with hard data. The
audience for music is fragmenting as listeners
spin off in dozens (soon to be hundreds?) of
directions. Demographers call this phenomenon
atomization. It is at work not just in music and
other artistic fields, but in food, fashion, home
decor, recreation, hobbies, travelanything that
people devote time to and spend money on.
Clarke Bustard

My niche is a minority interest. So is yours.

Each listeners preferences differ, at least
incrementally, from everyone elses. Each of us
is a subatomic particle, darting between
dissimilar and often distant points in an
expanding universe of musical ideas. Now,
finally, the dissemination and commerce of
music are developing the velocity and range to
keep up with us.Clarke Bustard

We are also facing oversaturation due to speed

and simplicity. The idea that consumers are the
new producers (aka Youtube mash-ups and
remixing) makes filling up the music space that
much easier. Jonathon Jaeger

The Future
We as a society will continue to pump out
more and more music but there will
always be better music, better artists and
we can look to see how streaming will
help artists with many albums be able to
grow in popularity as they get older.

Conclusion
Major Record Labels are not as crucial in an
artists success
Anyone can create music whether or not it is
a considered good or not
Streaming sites like Spotify and creations
like YouTube are how smaller artists can
really get their music heard
Niche marketing is how an artists can
succeed

References
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feb/24/is-new-music-killing-music-industry.
Bustard, Clarke. "Your Niche or Mine?" NewMusicBox.
February 13, 2007. Accessed April 25, 2016.
http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/Your-Niche-orMine/.
"How Musicians Can Find and Succeed in Niche Markets DIY Musician Blog." DIY Musician Blog. October 09,
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Jaeger, Jonathan. "Oversaturation: Clogging the Arteries
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2016.
http://jonathanjaeger.com/oversaturation-cloggingthe-arteries-of-the-m.
Mally Greenburg, Zack. "Revenge Of The Record Labels:
How
The Majors Renewed Their Grip On Music."
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/
2015/04/15/revenge-of-the-record-labels-how-the-majorsrenewed-their-grip-on-music/2/#4a0d4ebf331a.
Rys, Dan. "Label Execs Talk 'Decline of Record Business,
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