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Music industry

Taylor Swift's tour is boosting business near venues, but the singer's the big winner

by Henry Epp and Hannah Baggenstoss
May 19, 2023
She's likely to make more than $5 million a night in ticket sales alone.
Taylor Swift performs onstage for the opening night of "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
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Court battle over Ed Sheeran and Marvin Gaye songs could result in "less wonderful music" being made

by Sabri Ben-Achour and Alex Schroeder
May 3, 2023
It's yet the latest case of where to draw the line between the building blocks of music and intellectual property.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
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As vinyl record sales eclipse CDs, LP pressing plants are thriving

by Henry Epp
May 1, 2023
Streaming is still king, but vinyl sales continue to grow.
Sales of vinyl records by volume overtook CDs in 2022 for the first time since 1987. The resurgence of the format has meant a boom in vinyl manufacturing, but there have been bumps along the way.
Henry Epp/Marketplace
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Econ Extra Credit with David Brancaccio

Tower Records stores have actually been thriving all this time — in Japan

by David Brancaccio and Erika Soderstrom
Nov 1, 2022
In the age of streaming, we looked into why physical music remains popular in the world’s second largest music market.
Tower Records' major location in Japan. Located in Shibuya, a big finance and commercial hub in Tokyo.
Courtesy of Rei Teraura
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Musicians union challenges Spotify to raise royalties

by Kai Ryssdal and Richard Cunningham
Sep 2, 2022
Streaming accounts for the vast majority of recorded music income, but musicians and producers make fractions of a cent per stream.
The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers wants Spotify to increase the per-stream royalty for musicians and make its revenue data transparent. 
Sergi Alexander/Getty Images for Spotify
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I've Always Wondered ...

How did Top 40 radio become a hit?

by Janet Nguyen
Apr 1, 2022
The label refers to both a broadcast format and a category of music.
LFO62/Getty Images Plus
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Listeners “care about community and humanity of the music," says Pitchfork’s Patel

by Kai Ryssdal , Anais Amin and Sean McHenry
Dec 15, 2021
The editor in chief of the music site talks about virality versus hooks, how musicians make a living and the future of criticism.
Musicians have had to find new venues since the pandemic started, and the growth of the labor movement has affected the music industry, said Puja Patel, editor in chief of Pitchfork.
Ethan Miller via Getty Images
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COVID-19

His life as a Chicago musician is starting to feel normal again

by Andie Corban
Nov 18, 2021
After more than a year and a half of working online, Seth Shulman is teaching lessons in person and back to a more regular show schedule.
People listen to music at a September festival in Brooklyn, New York.
Angela Weiss/Getty Images
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How NFTs could change the music industry ... for better or worse

by Matt Levin
Nov 2, 2021
The Grammys' announcement is an example of how the technology underlying cryptocurrency is influencing how musicians make their money.
EDM artist Steve Aoki, seen here at a 2019 performance in New York City, partnered with an Italian digital artist to produce a multimedia NFT during the pandemic.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for All Nippon Airways
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Vinyl records are selling at twice the clip of a year ago with no signs of slowing down

by Kristin Schwab
Sep 20, 2021
Foot-square covers, bonus tracks and poster inserts — what's not to like?
A shopper browses through vinyl albums in Paris, France's Lucky Records Store in March 2021. Vinyl sales have skyrocketed over the past year.
Kiran Ridley via Getty Images
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