Providing an essential overview of key topics, developments and debates across the music business, including stats, strategies and current trends, the CMU Masterclass sessions are a great way to keep up to date or refresh your knowledge of the music business.
Click through to see the full schedule and book your place at our early bird rate of £59 inc VAT per session, or £299 inc VAT for all eight masterclass sessions.
The CMU Masterclass sessions are delivered live on Zoom Webinars, and are then available on-demand through CMU's learning platform.
Our masterclass The Music Business In 2024 provides an overview of key trends and developments in the music business over the last year, and will bring you fully up to speed on the current challenges and opportunities in the recording, publishing and live sectors.
Whatever role you have in the music industry, this masterclass will ensure that you have a full understanding of the wider business in 2024.
What you will learn in this session
Key music revenue streams: what’s changed?
The music industry is structured around an artist’s key revenue streams, which can be grouped into three main categories.
- Intellectual property revenues which include recordings and songs, as well as visual IP and trademarks that are monetised through merchandise and trademark licensing deals.
- Live music revenues which include tickets, VIP events and sponsorship.
- Fan relationship revenues that can be generated by super-serving super-fans.
Most people working in the music industry specialise in one revenue stream, which means artists have multiple business partners, working with different companies in each strand of the business, so in the record industry, music publishing, merch, live and direct-to-fan.
In The Music Business In 2024 masterclass we’ll outline current trends for each revenue stream and how those trends are having an impact on people and companies that work in that part of the business.
👉 We’ll break out the different ways and details of how recordings and songs make money in 2024. You’ll learn about the respective roles played by streaming, physical product, broadcast, public performance, sheet music, production music and sync.
👉 We will look at how artists, songwriters, labels, publishers and catalogue owners can maximise the potential revenue streams that can be generated by their music rights.
👉 We’ll outline the opportunities in D2C or 'Direct to Consumer' or 'Direct to Fan' and the superfan relationship - and explore how these opportunities can vary depending on the fanbase.
👉 You'll hear how artists and their teams can use fan data to identify those opportunities, and about the partners and platforms that can help generate revenue and maximise the potential of the fan and superfan relationship.
👉 We’ll review the specific challenges in the live sector, and will explain why those challenges are having a much bigger impact on those operating at the grassroots of the business.
Why you should take this CMU Masterclass
While most people in the music industry focus on their strand of the sector - and the revenue streams they are actively involved in - it’s crucial to have an understanding of the wider business. The artists you or your company work with are probably involved in all of these areas and are therefore impacted by trends and challenges associated with every revenue stream.
What else we will cover in The Music Business In 2024
How the artist business evolved in 2023 - and what that means for the year ahead in 2024
Each artist is also a business. And these artist businesses are at the heart of the music industry. Artist businesses are run by artists and their management teams. Everyone else in the music business is either providing services to the artist business, or is partnering with or investing in those artist businesses.
We’ll explain how artists and their managers grow, structure and run these businesses, and crucially how all of that is changing as new platforms, partners and deals come to the marketplace.
You’ll learn how artists now have more choice when it comes to choosing partners and when negotiating deals with those partners.
For those managing and advising artists, we’ll run through the options now available when selecting and negotiating with business partners, and will explain how to identify the best approach.
For those providing services to artists, you’ll better appreciate how you fit in, the role you play and the value you deliver to each artist’s wider business. We’ll identify possible new competitors - new kinds of businesses that are offering similar services and support to you and your company - and will explain what that might mean for the deals you do in the future.
The revival of live music
The top end of the live business is booming, as demonstrated by recent investor updates from Live Nation - the biggest live music company in the world - which showcase a live sector that has truly bounced back post-COVID. In November, following its “strongest quarter ever”, Live Nation said it was "on pace for a record 2023".
And yet grassroots venues are in crisis, independent festivals are struggling, and an increasing number of artists - including those who play mid-tier venues - are finding it hard to make touring profitable.
In The Music Business In 2024 we will run through the key challenges the live sector faces, including surging production costs, a crowded marketplace, the impact of the cost of living crisis, post-Brexit bureaucracy and the hangover of the COVID lockdowns.
We’ll explore why these challenges are having a disproportionate impact on the grassroots live sector, but also for artists operating in the mid-tier. The live sector has always been top-heavy, but you’ll see that this is more true today than ever before.
You will also find out about some of the proposals that have been made to address some of these issues, and how artists and their teams are adapting to protect the live side of their businesses.
Why AI dominated the headlines in 2023 - and what challenges and opportunities AI presents for music companies in 2024
2023 was the year when debates around artificial intelligence started to top the agenda in society at large, and also in the music industry.
But what do artists and their business partners need to know about AI as we head into 2024?
As a taster of our full masterclass on music and AI, The Music Business In 2024 will conclude with a concise overview of AI's impacts on music - both music creation and the music business more broadly.
We’ll summarise how artists and music companies are now using AI: as part of the music-making process; to power music marketing; and to otherwise support business operations.
You’ll learn how AI can assist you and your company, but we will also run through the potential pitfalls, and will explain what you need to be wary of when using AI.
And we will introduce the big debates around generative AI models that can be used to create music including the copyright and other legal obligations of AI companies - and what that means to music creators and their teams.
The music industry is getting ever more vocal on these issues, and we’ll help you fully understand each of the controversies and disputes around AI and the role you can play in the ongoing campaigns.
Click through to see our other CMU Masterclass sessions
CMU
Other sessions include:
Music Streaming In 2024
Music Copyright In 2024
Music + AI In 2024
Economics Of Streaming: Debates & Controversies
Economics Of Streaming: Money & Allocation
Economics Of Streaming: Data & Transparency
Economics Of Streaming: Rights & Innovation