Music is decentralizing. The tech needs to catch up

A funny thing is happening in music over the last few years.

Major labels no longer know how to break acts. [source]

Arena shows are getting pulled due to lack of sales. [source]

Superstars are on the decline. [source]

Streaming growth is slowing. [source]

Meanwhile …

Independent labels and artists are growing 27% annually, eating into the major label market share.

Artists are going direct-to-fan, and niche culture is rising. For example:

• James Blake is dropping unreleased music direct-to-fans in private chat rooms.

• Kendrick Lamar is uploading tracks straight to YouTube and removing copyright because it's faster to distribute.

• The most streamed song in a single day in 2023 was Spanish language.

• And underground pop artist Charli XCX’s is close to outselling "superstars" like Dua Lipa with a niche hyper-pop record.

The era of monolithic superstar music culture is dying, and it's being replaced with diverse, niche pockets of culture, driven by instant global internet communities.

This reminds me of the classic crypto philosophy of Cathedrals and Bazaars.

Giant, polished, closed-source cathedrals are being replaced by open-source, permissionless bazaars.

This metaphor originally refers to building software.

• Cathedrals - Monolithic products built meticulously behind closed doors by a small group of developers.

• Bazaars - Open-source software built fast and chaotically in public, allowing anyone to contribute.

Cathedrals are grand and spectacular but they're centralized — you can't contribute, which creates an insider-outsider divide.

Bazaars are scrappy, chaotic and messy but bubbling with diverse culture and spontaneity. There’s a feeling of belonging and openness.

The metaphor applies to music, too.

There are just three major labels. Two dominant streaming services.

One ticketing monopoly.

These are spectacular cathedrals with enormous budgets, polished release campaigns, carefully crafted superstars and stadium shows. 

It's created the biggest insider-outsider divide of almost any industry. Just 0.5% of musicians make a living from music, while tech companies find it almost impossible to disrupt the gigantic monopolies.

And it's because they build with a cathedral mentality: closed-source, slowly and in silos.

Like I wrote at the top of this article — the music cathedrals are already losing their importance.

Kendrick Lamar's recent rollout is the epitome of bazaar culture: shipped fast and zero copyright so anyone could contribute and use it without permission.

Charli XCX's "Brat" is an underground hyper-pop record that took over the internet with organic viral distribution from her fans — the opposite of a traditional, polished radio-driven campaign.

Although the culture is trying to push us towards the bazaar model, the infrastructure is still stuck in Cathedral mode.

The foundations of the music industry need to change.

We need an open source music industry that builds in public, on top of one another, sharing information.

This is already proven out in other areas of crypto, like defi.

Everyone in crypto knows that stablecoins are better than bank payments. Uniswap is more efficient than traditional markets. Aave is the most transparent lending market on the planet. And value flows seamlessly between them all, creating something bigger than the sum of its parts.

Why wouldn't this work for music? 

Instead of building cathedrals behind closed-doors, we build together and embrace thousands of diverse ideas.

Obviously at Oscillator we’re focused on making this a technical reality.

We want open-source music data so that anyone can show up to the bazaar, launch their product and capture the network effects of everyone else building here.

But it’s cultural, too.

The real culture is always deep in the markets — where different culture and customs and ideas collide. It’s vibrant and eclectic and exciting.

Music is the same.

The change will be chaotic and messy, and that's okay because that's how creativity thrives.

That's where we're heading. If you like this vision and want to be involved, fill out the Typeform here and we'll get back to you.