Data is Eating the Music Business

That’s right. Another newsletter about data in the music industry. It’s a hill I’m willing to die on- that data is the critical lifeblood of the entire ecosystem, and that those who grasp this the quickest will be the ones who accelerate their businesses the fastest.

Photo by Kin Li

In a sense it’s crazy that this still is even a discussion point- given the rise of the personal computer in the 1990s, the internet in the 2000s, web 2.0 (social) in the 2010s. The list of foundation-shifting innovations is long (and goes back long before the 90s), but the music industry has historically struggled to adapt quickly. Or to frame it another way- new entrants who have accepted these innovations as wrote, as starting blocks rather than finishing lines, are the ones that have redefined how the entire industry functions for the next era. The creation of the mp3 and the rise of file sharing (+ the conception of streaming) is one example. Apple, downloads and the unbundling of the album is another.**

In the early 2000s, Marc Andreessen famously quipped “software is eating the world.” In music, these 'software' moments continue to come and go. Streaming services, social media, and music creation tools themselves (DAWs, Splice, etc.) have all dramatically reshaped different facets of our business- how music is made, distributed, and consumed. As we enter the second half of the 2020s we’ve become used to these tidal milestones- it’s no longer software that's eating the music business. It’s data- and it’s doing so from the inside out.

Metadata has long been the unglamorous plumbing of music rights- necessary for tracking royalties, registering works, and paying creators. But its relevance is expanding. In fact, across every function of a music company- A&R, marketing, deal analysis, investor relations, forecasting, compliance… data is no longer an afterthought, but the engine room.

Those who continue to see data as a support function will get left behind. It can no longer be bolted on ‘after the fact’. Those who build their business around it will thrive.

1. A&R: From Gut Instinct to Pattern Recognition

A&R has always been part science, part art. Talent spotting, knowing when a sound is breaking, or seeing early signs of cultural momentum- these will never be entirely replaceable by dashboards and social media monitoring. But the best A&R teams today are armed with both- with real-time signals and intelligent filters that validate an intuitional sense of timing.

Platforms like Soundcharts, Viberate, Sodatone, and Chartmetric track thousands of data points across DSPs, socials, and search. Smart A&Rs don’t just use these for discovery- they use them to validate decisions, time their approaches, and even to negotiate deal terms. An artist growing 20% MoM on Instagram but flatlining on TikTok will need a different strategy than one going viral in Indonesia but unsigned in Europe. That level of nuance is only possible with the right data.

Some A&R teams are even exploring machine-learning models trained on fan behaviour to predict breakout potential- or flag heritage artists whose back catalog is primed for revival. In these contexts data doesn’t replace taste, but sharpens it.

2. Marketing: from Megaphones to Magnifying Glasses

Music marketing today has more tools, and more data, than ever before. In an era where digital platforms are constantly shifting, the best marketing teams aren’t just using data to react, they’re also using it to predict, to amplify, and to scale what’s already working. Much as with A&R, data isn’t replacing creativity and intuition- it’s supercharging it.

By combining real-time analytics with rights and repertoire insights, modern marketers can spot trends as they emerge, identify the moments that matter, and capitalise quickly. Whether it’s a track bubbling on TikTok, a sync placement triggering Shazam spikes, or a seasonal lift that recurs annually (there are more than just Christmas songs with cycles! Think September…), data gives marketeers the confidence to double down at exactly the right time. Precision and reach are no longer in conflict.

Critically this only works when marketing is integrated with data infrastructure across the whole company. A campaign is far more effective when it’s backed by accurate rights data, cleared territories, and reliable track-level metadata. Knowing which songs/masters are available for TikTok, cleared for sync, or trending on a key playlist lets teams move fast and act smart. So many businesses are stymied by cross-department questions about what they control, what they can license (particularly for sync), what is developing and where. Data systems lower communication barriers business wide, making teams that need to operate cross functionally far more agile.

3. Investor Reporting: From Spin to Substance

As music has become an asset class, transparency has become currency. Private equity, pension funds, family offices, and publicly traded vehicles are pouring billions into music catalogs. But with that capital comes expectation, and legal fiduciary responsibilities. Investors require regular, accurate, granular, and benchmarked reporting to accompany dividends (... if there are any!).

Gone are the days when “total revenue” and “net publisher share” were sufficient. Modern funds need to track per-title profit and loss, royalty source trends (particularly given macro industry events like CRB rulings), and platform-level splits. They want to see month-on-month movement, LTV (lifetime value) per asset, and royalty backlog via up-to-date performance analysis.

Inaccurate or opaque data here isn’t just inefficient, it’s reputationally risky. It undermines trust, raises questions about valuations, and makes future fundraising and attracting catalogs for acquisition harder, too. Funds that invest early in data infrastructure (and the team know-how to manage it) will reap the benefits many times over.

4. Deal Due Diligence & Forecasting: Seeing Around Corners

Catalog valuations still depend entirely on historical earnings- typically 3 to 5 years of statements and a backward-looking multiple. But increasingly, buyers and sellers are able to look forward as well as back.

Forecasting future earnings from historic statements is notoriously difficult, and comes with countless assumptions and exemptions. It requires not just clean historical data, but intelligent data analysis: how might streaming growth in developing markets affect this artist? How might sync potential shift post-tour? What’s the decay curve of a TikTok-driven viral hit? AI models can assist, but only if they’re trained on quality inputs. Dirty data in = nonsense forecasts out.

Due diligence is becoming more forensic at the copyright level too, beyond just the royalty statement:

• Are all registrations in place?

• Do all ISRCs and ISWCs line up?

• Are any copyrights missing or not accounted for?

• Are there pending disputes?

• What’s the registration provenance of each track?

This is where we’ve seen an emerging role for “music data auditors”- specialist teams who pore over catalog data to flag inconsistencies before the deal is signed. This service is becoming more critical- royalty statements only paint half the picture. The value of a catalog also lies deeply in the quality of its metadata and its attribution hygiene.

What This All Means

I’ve specifically not even touched upon the incoming AI storm and the need for attribution here, as I wanted to keep this newsletter both practical and focussed in the here and now.

And that’s the crux. Baking data into business operations isn’t a future hypothetical but a present and immediate concern. I can see the powerful multiplier effects data integration/systems are having on some businesses, and I can also see where other companies are being rapidly left behind.

Every department should rely on data to drive decisions, measure performance, and prove value. Those who silo their teams away from data are already slower, riskier, and ultimately less competitive.

To thrive in this environment, companies need to:

• Invest in clean, connected and open data infrastructure

• Build internal data literacy across departments

• Treat metadata and rights hygiene as a strategic asset

• Empower all teams with real-time, actionable insights

• Embrace a culture of measurement, not just instinct

The winners of the next decade won’t just be the ones who have the best catalogs. They’ll be the ones who understand what’s in them, how they perform, and how to act on that information.

Data is eating the music business. And it’s hungry.

** I’d highly recommend ‘How Music Got Free’, which explores these coalescing dynamics from the perspective of 3 interlinked character narratives, and is a staple for understanding how we got to where we are today.