IC Community Newsletter #71
Thoughts on diversifying revenue for independent labels + the latest industry news and releases from our community
I promised my wife I wouldn't talk about Spotify this time. With their Loud & Clear propaganda still ringing in my ears, I desperately want to point my ire in their direction again. But Hunter really cooked last week in his breakdown of the newly released payouts data, so I’ll take a break from shaking my fist this time.
Instead, I want to elaborate on the big takeaway from his post:
What can artists/labels/catalogs do?
DIVERSIFY YOUR CATALOG INCOME SOURCES.
Sounds great! How? Here are a few ideas I've been thinking about:
1. Take stock.
If you're going to diversify, a good first step is to understand where you are right now. IC is an excellent tool for that analysis—you can slice your data in all sorts of interesting ways with our built-in reporting tools.
I took things a few steps further while examining the data for my own label, Fortune Signal, last week. In what turned out to be an extremely fruitful AI experiment, I exported our IC transaction data, brought the CSV into Claude, and used its analysis tool to uncover trends that I might not have found on my own.
Side note… if you're interested in a deep dive on using Claude to analyze your IC royalty data, let me know! I'm considering creating some explainers on how to do it.
2. Reprioritize.
For us, the analysis revealed that Spotify’s revenue contribution is shrinking and Beatport is becoming increasingly important. Meanwhile, Bandcamp remains our model for success. The first step in diversification for us is to double down on what's already working: find new ways to drive sales on Beatport and tighten up our Bandcamp strategy.
Super cute bonus: we found we can cut costs by skipping out on Spotify tactics we were hopeful about, but that ultimately proved to be flops. No more streamer-specific radio edits for us this year.
3. Expand.
Now that we know how we’re adjusting course to maximize our existing revenue streams, we're looking at net-new revenue sources. We're sizing up new consumer-oriented platforms like Nina and Subvert, and we're getting our ducks in a row for fresh licensing opportunities with tools like Alloy.
One headache we certainly won't have in diversifying: accounting for those new revenue streams. We can drop royalty data from anywhere into IC (and we'll run this whole strategic analysis back later on to see what's sticking).
That’s my take on diversification for today. Here's what I want to know from you:
Want a Claude-powered royalty analysis deep dive? I'm pretty hyped on the potential.
Are you working on diversifying your catalog's income right now? What's got your eye?
—Mark
P.S. [Final Spotify Mention Count: 3] Sorry, Lenay 🫠
IC Updates
Calling All Bookkeepers
We're on the hunt for bookkeeping talent—for ourselves and for the community!
As IC grows, we’re looking for a third-party bookkeeper to take over our books. And, because our community regularly asks us who to trust with their numbers, we figured we would also use this as an opportunity to add some fresh faces to our Industry Directory. If you're a bookkeeper who understands royalties and the music biz (or know someone who is), click through to learn more about both opportunities.
We've Been Nominated!
We're in the running for Independent Champion at the 2025 A2IM Libera Awards, and we're genuinely thrilled to be recognized alongside so many friends and clients.
Speaking of which... many IC users are up for their own awards this year, including Kemado/Mexican Summer, Merge, Captured Tracks, Saddle Creek, Topshelf, True Panther, and Polyvinyl. Not surprised at all to see these labels being celebrated—they're doing amazing work while maintaining the kind of artist-friendly transparency we love to see.
If you're an A2IM member, voting is open now.
Indie Intel
All the news that’s fit to summarize.
“Streaming saved the music business, not musicians," explained Liz Pelly at the New York Public Library, in a conversation with WNYC's John Schaefer about her book "Mood Machine." Among the topics of discussion: how Spotify's goal to "reduce cognitive work" for listeners is actively making fans less engaged. (Editor’s note: I was lucky enough to be in the audience for this great talk. Highly worth a listen!)
MIDiA's latest installment of their sprawling industry report finds that, even though the recorded music market grew 6.5% overall last year, DSPs are outgrowing labels 3-to-1. The bifurcation represents a deepening of the fundamental power shift.
In his latest Future Filter piece, Declan McGlynn and Bandcamp’s Aly Gillani questioned why the music industry is frantically inventing new "superfan" models when Bandcamp already exists—a platform where 25% of fans voluntarily pay more than asked and digital downloads still generated nearly $100 million in 2024.
In The Verge's Decoder podcast, Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava tells Nilay Patel that AI-generated push-button music creation is "insulting" to musicians. Unlike competitors racing to replace human creativity, Splice maintains that the creative struggle is essential and AI should enhance—not eliminate—the artistic process.
Digital Music News' Ashley King details how major music organizations are fighting back against AI companies' disregard for copyright with a proposed blanket licensing system. Their framework would force GenAI platforms to pay up for ingesting creative works while establishing clear rules for what constitutes human authorship.
MBW’s Mandy Dalugdug reports that Live Nation's legal maneuvers hit a wall when the judge shot down their motion to dismiss crucial elements of the DOJ's monopoly case. The judge specifically validated claims that artists are "coerced" into using Live Nation as a promoter to access their amphitheaters.
New Releases
Music from catalogs in the IC community that caught our attention since last time.
🎧 Mexican Summer presents Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's "Gift Songs," a meditative five-tracker born from the artist's dual life as Zen priest/hospice worker. →
🎧 San Diego's NOS imprint arms DJs with "NOS In Miami 2025," a toolbox of 8 peak time house weapons ahead of Winter Music Conference. →
🎧 London's Niall Rowley launches his Rowant alias with the"Networks EP" on Manual Smiles, delivering four cuts of trippy techno. →
🎧 Phantom Limb presents "Turnar," Icelandic artist Hekla's portal-opening theremin voyage through subfrequency drones and crystalline textures. →
🎧 Post Present Medium releases "Around and About You," Miranda Spatula & Nowhere Flower’s bedroom pop collab built on phone recordings. →
That’s all for #71! As always, if there’s something you’d like to see in the next edition, give us a shout.
Until next time!
- Mark & the Infinite Catalog crew
I'm very interested in the Claude deep dive!