Warner Music Group's A&R Costs Say a Lot About How Much Labels Need to Spend on Artists in Today's Music Industry

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Warner Music Group is about to go public. Its A&R costs say a lot about how much labels are forced to spend on artists in today's music industry

. I also predicted Tencent might do the buying; if WMG does land on the stock market, let’s see if the Chinese company makes an institutional acquisition of shares.)filed with the SEC that revealed pretty much everything about the company’s fiscal performance over the past few years.

This A&R costs figure is therefore a fascinating indicator of the underlying economics of today’s record deals, i.e., how generous major labels are being forced to be with their funds. Delving deeper into Warner’s numbers, there is an even more telling indication of how rising artist costs could cause investors issues in years to come. Within its SEC filings, WMG’s recorded-music revenues are broken down into three constituent parts: Licensing; Artist Services & Expanded Rights; and Total Physical & Digital.

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'forced'

Are labels also now shrinking the total quantity of artists they sign and pay A&R costs to? As in, proven artists now get more of the pie - leaving less money budgeted to sign riskier, fringe artists?

Akademiks Complex EverydayStrugg neweryork

Labels spend needlessly chasing the next one-hit wonder. Put money back into BANDS and give them 3-album development deals. Make MUSIC fans again, not just kids filling a playlist.

Very interesting article 👏👏

You put a picture like that at the top of your post and you really think people are going to read the article?

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