How are young music artists configuring their media and sales platforms in the digital age?

Abstract

Research on how music artists generate sales from their content through different platforms is scant. In this study, configuration theory is used to show that different market access configurations are viable simultaneously and that young musicians differ significantly in how they generate revenues. Using data on the media and sales performance of 338 young musicians in the Netherlands, we show that there is an ‘Emerging Star’ group (7–13% of artists depending on regional scope) and that record labels play an important role in this configuration providing broad media access on all platforms, both old and new. Digital age ‘Independents’ (14% of young artists), mostly without a record label, seem to benefit from the use of social media while exploiting synergies around live music. All artists in the remaining groups ‘Question Marks’ and ‘Hobbyists’ experience low to very low performance on all platforms. This study shows that configuration theory can provide detailed insight into viable and unviable marketing strategies. In particular, it shows that the globally declining music CD platform can still be very important for specific artists that exploit synergies between live performances, on-site CD sales and social media fan relationship management. The implications for marketing theory and young music artists are discussed.

Keywords:

• configuration theory
• music artist
• digital age
• e-commerce
• illegal downloading

Notes

¹ The Dutch Pop and Rock Institute (Nationaal Pop Instituut) is now part of the Music Centre the Netherlands. This organisation promotes Dutch music in the Netherlands and abroad and is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Culture. One of their activities is publishing the monthly magazine FRET which features reviews of demos from unsigned acts.

² The Grand Prize of the Netherlands (Grote Prijs van Nederland) is the biggest national popular music talent competition and consists of four genre divisions, Pop/Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Dance and Hip Hop/R&B.

³ By omitting new media penetration and sales from the clustering approach, we make sure that we can later link new media variables to the clusters as truly independent factors. See also Payne (2006).

⁴ A clustering in five clusters proved to be the most robust. By reducing the number of clusters, we collapsed certain groups, reducing richness in terms of our analysis across groups. Configuration group means for each of the variables used in the clustering are presented in Table 3. The reliability and validity of the clusters was further supported by additional analysis of variance tests, showing significant differences across groups and in success levels and a Wilks’ lambda test was used to further validate our five clusters (p < .01). In addition, we conducted other clustering techniques that did not result in material differences (K-means cf. Ketchen & Shook 1996).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark A.A.M. Leenders

Mark A.A.M. Leenders is professor of marketing at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. His main research interests are marketing strategy, marketing and innovation interfaces, creative industries, and boundaries and trade-offs in marketing decision-making. His publications appeared in leading journals such as Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Management, Marketing Letters, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation Management and Industrial Marketing Management.

Mark A. Farrell

Mark A. Farrell is professor of marketing and head of the Graduate School of Business and Law at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Professor Farrell’s research focuses upon the market orientation of organisations. He has published articles in leading journals, including The International Journal of Research in Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Personnel Review, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources and The Australian Journal of Management.

Koos Zwaan

Koos Zwaan is associate professor in media, culture and citizenship at the Inholland University of Applied Sciences. He received his PhD with a thesis on the career development of young pop musicians in the Netherlands. His research interests include the production and consumption of popular media and cultural products, in particular popular music, the role of the media within society as well as the societal impact of new technology.

Tom F.M. ter Bogt

Tom F.M. ter Bogt is professor of popular music and youth culture, first at the University of Amsterdam and since September 2006 at Utrecht University. He obtained his PhD with a thesis on the history of protestant work ethic in the Netherlands and work ethic among present-day adolescents. He is author of many articles and two books on music, youth and youth culture. His research interests are pop music, youth culture, adolescent problems and substance use.