Don Passman was teaching a music law course at USC several years ago when he realized his lecture notes were the outline of a book. “Because musicians are ear-oriented,” he says, there was an opportunity to write “an easy-to-read overview of the business for people who don’t like reading.” Think “big print, lots of images, analogies, simple language.” When the first edition of Everything you need to know about the world of music was released in 1991 – the 11th edition arrived last October – “there was only one book about the world of music at the time that had any importance,” remembers Passman. “And it was a little difficult to read.”
Recently, however, music business education seems to be an increasingly hot topic. Thanks to technological advances, the number of aspiring artists releasing music with little or no knowledge of the music industry has increased. Many of these artists begin releasing music in their early teens, long before they have had the chance to take a college course on the music business, let alone master the nuances of copyright law. And they often hire an equally inexperienced friend to act as “manager,” ensuring that even their closest advisors have no experience navigating the industry.
As a result, there is a dire need for affordable, quality music business education. Many of the platforms that allow artists to create, listen to, or distribute music today see educational initiatives as a way to foster loyalty and community — which in turn will help them stand out in the never-ending battle for users and attention. – and possibly as an additional revenue stream too.
Some of these educational efforts are in their early stages: Spotify began testing video learning courses in the UK in March, for example, while TIDAL has said that education will be a cornerstone of its new era as it works to build financial tools for artists. (It was acquired by Block in 2021.)
The company Creative Intell is further along: it raised money from across the music world and created an animated series to teach young artists the inner workings of the industry, from record deals to publishing. And the Bandlab platform, which allows its more than 100 million users to create music on their phones, has been releasing a steady stream of free tutorials and blog posts.
Helping aspiring artists understand the intricacies of the music industry is “something we’re investing a lot in,” says Krevin Breuner, head of arts development and education at Bandlab. “The industry is more complex than ever and understanding the business from day one is not just an advantage; it’s essential. Bandlab has a very young audience, it’s growing, and we want these artists to feel like they have a partner – someone they can trust.”
Smart Austen agrees: The DJ, who co-founded British music education company PLAYvirtuoso in 2020 with his brother, sees “huge potential in this space.” “I see there will be at least one in eight people learning from home,” he says, and a portion of them will be interested in the music industry.
Co-founder of Creative Intell Steven Navio divides the field of music education into three categories – how to create music, how to market music, and the business of music. While YouTube alone is filled with free videos on the first two topics — not to mention all the Reddit threads, blog posts, and TikTok tutorials — finding reliable, accessible information on the third is more challenging. “The music business is probably the most important; it has to be the most accurate and is often ignored,” says Ship.
If an aspiring artist produces a track poorly or markets it clumsily, that song will likely not perform well – a temporary setback. On the other hand, if they do not understand how the industry works, the consequences can be much more harmful: they could sign a contract with a manager, publisher or publishing house that will give up control of their production for decades. “Artists were taken advantage of terribly in the early days of the music business because they simply didn’t know what they were doing,” says Passman. And today, “the industry is changing very quickly,” adds Breuner, making it even more difficult “to know what’s important and what’s not.”
When Smart signed a major record deal with his brother – just “two young, hungry artists living in London” – he admits the pair “didn’t have the knowledge and understanding of what we were signing up to”. A lawyer would have helped, but they didn’t have the money “to hire lawyers who could help us interpret it.”
Contracts are often “obscure and complicated,” Smart continues. “You are offered a relatively large advance; that’s a pretty big number when you’re 25 and 22. What does it really mean? What does this mean ten years later?”
If he could go back in time, he imagines going through the process again — but this time, “we have that course on understanding record label deals” available. And if necessary, he could “book a one-on-one session with someone for £30” to help provide extra context. This is part of the reason why one of the “three pillars” of PLAYvirtuoso’s educational material centers on understanding the music industry.
PLAYvirtuoso is one of four companies that initially partnered with Spotify to offer courses on various topics. The streaming service’s decision to test new educational materials came about because it saw data that indicated some users were eager to gain more knowledge.
“If I go back 10 years, most people who came to Spotify came with one intention: to listen to music,” he says Mohit Jitani, director of product at Spotify. “But in recent years, as we introduced podcasts and audiobooks, people started coming to Spotify to listen to an interview or learn about leadership and finance.”
Currently, Spotify courses are offered on a freemium model: users can access the first classes for free, but must pay to complete the full course.
While Spotify’s exploratory foray into education resulted from the fact that “people started coming to [us] for casual learning,” as Jitani puts it — and potentially gives the platform another new source of revenue — TIDAL’s recent effort to help artists increase their business IQ is driven in part by its new owner, payments company Block .
“Developing tools and services for business owners, we saw that the moment you get a little strength outside of your friends and family, the world becomes a lot more complicated,” he says. Augustina Priest, global head of product at TIDAL. “You need to start understanding your numbers to understand where the next big opportunity will come from.”
The same principle applies to artists. Understandably, they tend to focus on the art. But, as Ship notes, “the moment you release a song, you’re in business” – whether you like it or not. So TIDAL started offering webinars and launched a new product called Circles, which Sacerdote likens to “a very curated version of Reddit, where we have the topics we think most artists have questions about,” including tours and merchandise. .
For now, TIDAL products are free. “Once an artist gets really good advice that they never would have gotten [elsewhere] in Circles, then we will start thinking about how we will monetize?” Priest says.
Creative Intell’s materials on the world of music are currently much more comprehensive than those on TIDAL or Spotify: the company has created 18 lively courses to help aspiring artists – the vast majority of whom don’t have managers or lawyers – to “understand what you are subscribing to, learn how to monetize it better and how to protect yourself,” says Ship.
Creative Intell releases some materials for free and charges for access to everything ($29.99 per month). It also plans to work with distributors like Vydia as marketing partners. Vydia isn’t the only company looking to provide this kind of resource – Songtrust, for example, has created its own materials to help songwriters understand how to raise their money around the world.
“Other industries have all kinds of corporate resources for training and the music industry lacks them,” says Ship. “We’re trying to fill that void.”
