Music Industry Trends

The music industry is constantly evolving and pushing boundaries every year with 2024 bringing about key trends that are reshaping how artists create, and how listeners consume music. Here are valuable insights on the latest music trends for artists and industry professionals in 2024.

1. Music Streaming Services

Streaming services disrupted the traditional way of music distribution by allowing listeners to engage with music fully digitally. However in recent years we’ve seen a significant cultural shift in how music is being consumed, with streaming services and social media both playing major roles in how music is experienced and accessed in different ways. This is redefining the music industry and splitting the consumer experience into two parts: listening passively through streaming services and playing music actively on social media through engagement and interaction.

The creator economy is thriving and has a significant influence on cultural values, fuelling the music industry's cultural shift towards social media. Users are spending more time discovering music on social media through viral trends and challenges rather than directly from streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. This means social platforms like TikTok and Instagram are no longer tools for music marketing but are a new form of music consumption in itself.

Music streaming platforms are still dominant for music consumption and continue to acquire a growing number of users. However, as mentioned before, the majority of young listeners will stream music passively as background music, creating a gap between the artists and the listener. This dilutes fan bases as less attention is being given to what is being listened to. Especially as the first 10-15 seconds of a song decide whether a song is skipped.

A factor contributing to the rise of this shift has been the popularity of short form content and the ease that comes with them for both the creator and viewer. These videos are not only easy to create but also effortless for audiences to consume and share, making them an ideal medium for music discovery. Artists can quickly generate traffic and buzz around a new release and fans can participate by creating their own content or sharing it. Leading to artists to spend more time on socials, sometimes prioritising posting than making music.

2. Home Studio - recording industry trends

The increasing availability of music tools allows anyone interested in creating their own tracks to try it for themselves. Affordable tools have democratized music creation. Now, anyone can experiment with music production, sharing their work directly on social media. Due to this there has been a significant growth in bedroom producer as music is being created in innovative ways, away from expensive industry equipment. This new generation of independent artists embrace creating music regardless of their background, pushing boundaries created by financial or geographical barriers and challenging the traditional gatekeeping of record labels. This trend has been growing for some time now but its expected to increase following the rise of generative AI.

3. Will AI Replace Humans?

Artificial intelligence is considered a widely controversial topic when it comes to music, with a long running discourse centred on the implications of music AI. This discourse is along the lines of - AI stealing jobs, replacing human art, replacing your favourite artists and everything else you love. However AI is still relatively new and the trajectory of it is unknown in the ever changing landscape. But what is known is that it’s creating new possibilities for creativity. 

There is a misconception with AI and how it will replace music creators, but when it comes down to it AI can’t replace human creativity. Human creativity is needed and valued as people want to experience real people. This is evident in the heightened desire and demand for live performances this year. As well as this, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) has already pursued a lawsuit against AI music firms, Suno and Udio. They produce tracks resembling copyrighted music without proper licensing and use machine learning systems to create music that essentially drowns out existing human artists. This opens the discussion to ethics in AI music creations and how it can exist without the ethical and legal implications.

The answer to the future of AI lies in it becoming a tool that can be utilised by musicians in their creative workflow, as opposed to taking over all creative industries. Think of AI as a new digital tool that can be incorporated, similar to other tools such as synths and samplers which were also once new technologies that created scepticism.

Companies such as Soundverse can offer the solution to ethical AI music generation, where human artistry can be blended into technology. Offering a creative catalyst for musicians to use, potentially transforming what music creation processes can be. This usage of AI empowers artists and encourages collaborative projects that embrace human creativity to create unique sound design and inspire the creative process.

4. Genre Fluidity 

Artists are increasingly embracing genre fluidity. Even your favourite artists are taking creative leaps away from the boundaries of genre. The growing popularity of this trend is reshaping the industry, as genre boundaries dissolve and musicians find success by experimenting with a range of influences. This genre blending not only allows artists to explore new sounds and styles but also opens the door to new audiences and markets. Collaborations like Silk Sonic’s fusion of soul, R&B, and funk illustrate how musicians are pushing the boundaries of creativity, leading to new sonic experiences that break away from long-established genre conventions.

5. Songs and Lyrics are Becoming Simpler

Lyrics are considered to be a mirror of society that reflect cultural values and emotions. A recent study revealed that lyrics have become simpler over time, with a decline in vocabulary, richness, readability, complexity and  an increase in repeated lines. Popular songs tend to have more choruses that repeat basic lyrics. As well as this, there is an increased use of words such as “me’ or ‘mine’ creating introspective lyrics, which may suggest that self-centered values are becoming more prevalent. The lyrical trends seen in the study could reflect the shortening of our attention spans and the rise of our egotistical point of views with our increased social media usage.

Not only are lyrics becoming simpler, but songs have gotten shorter too. The average length of a song from the Billboard Hot 100 has decreased from four minutes to three minutes in the last 30 years. The music industry rewards shorter songs as artists have to meet a minimum playtime threshold of their songs in order to get a pay-out in some streaming platforms like Spotify. However captivating audiences to listen is becoming increasingly more stubborn on streaming services, as mentioned before. Around 24% of Spotify listeners press skip within the first five seconds and 50% before a song ends, further incentivising artists to release shorter songs to retain listeners as well as receive one of their deserved revenue streams.

6. Physical Music Formats

A study found 59% of 18-24 year olds listened to physical music releases in 2024, highlighting a growing trend among Gen Z to embrace analogue music experiences. This shift may be driven by Gen Z’s love for nostalgia, which is evident in the way art and culture is consumed-  just look at the resurgence of Y2K fashion and aesthetics. The broader cultural fascination with “retro” and “vintage” could explain the shift towards vinyl records and cassettes as they offer a way to connect to the past while enjoying a more tangible music experience for music lovers.