Washington, DC—On Monday, January 30, Future of Music Coalition (FMC) will provide an exclusive first look at some of the findings from its groundbreaking Artist Revenue Streams research project (ARS). As part of MIDEM’s Visionary Monday, the presentation will outline key discoveries regarding the revenue streams connected with an artist’s brand.
Thomson’s 10-minute presentation will be live webcast on Monday, Jan 30 at
5:30 AM ET (11:30 AM Cannes time) at http://blog.midem.com.
ARS is a multi-method, cross-genre research project. Over the past 18 months, FMC has collected information from a diverse set of US-based musicians and composers about the ways that they are currently generating income from their recordings, compositions or performances, and whether or how this has changed over the past ten years.
The project has employed three methodologies: in-depth interviews with more than 25 different types of musicians — from jazz performers, to classical players, TV and film composers, Nashville songwriters, rockers and hip hop artists; financial snapshots that show individual artists’ revenue pies in any given year; and a wide-ranging online survey in fall 2011 that captured information from a diverse array of US-based musicians and composers.
At MIDEM, project co-director Kristin Thomson will present about one particular finding: the revenue that musicians can earn by leveraging their brand. This can include everything from selling merchandise to building fan support for upcoming projects. During the presentation, Thomson will draw data from both survey findings and artist interviews to describe to MIDEM audience members the changing relationship between artists, brands and earnings.
“I hope our presentation will accomplish two things,” said Thomson. “First, we want to put this revenue source in perspective. For many artists that we studied — from Nashville songwriters to freelance musicians and salaried orchestra players — merchandise and branding simply isn’t part of their income portfolio, and it may never be.
“Second, we want to illustrate how artists who can monetize their brands are being quite strategic in doing so. Whether it’s limited edition merchandise or corporate sponsorship, musicians are managing their brands with greater purpose, because they recognize the increasing role this plays in their overall revenue picture.”
MIDEM will be the first public release of some of this research data. Over the next six months, FMC will release a series of reports, research memos and presentations that focus on unique perspectives of this immense, robust data set.
Artist Revenue Streams was funded by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional support from YouTube.
For more information: http://futureofmusic.org/ars
If you would like to meet with Kristin Thomson while at MIDEM, please email her at kristin [at] futureofmusic [dot] org to arrange a time.
Future of Music Coalition is a national non-profit education, research and advocacy organization that seeks a bright future for creators and listeners. FMC works towards this goal through continuous interaction with its primary constituency — musicians — and in collaboration with other creator/public interest groups. More