In investing and in life, we often seek bellwethers to help make sense of the big picture, or predict the future.
Over the past decade, the US music industry has changed dramatically. Streaming has taken over and revenues recovered. Wall Street stormed in. Some people have become rich. Warner Music chief Stephen Cooper told an investor conference in September that the company had successfully reduced its “dependency on superstars”.
Midnights’ 1.5 million is a number from another era, putting Swift in the category of 1990s boy bands – the previous financial peak for the US music business. “She’s basically an intellectual property franchise now. Like a DC movie”, says Matt Pincus, founder of music publisher SONGS.
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