The next battle in music won't be over masters.
The music business has a habit of arguing about ownership.
Masters
Publishing
360 deals
Image rights
Merchandise
Every generation fights over whatever becomes valuable next. I think we're approaching another one. Only this time, the asset isn't music. It's understanding.
Ownership creates leverage
It creates negotiating power
It creates long-term value
And I believe fan understanding is about to become one of the most valuable strategic assets an artist possesses.
understanding a fragmented human portrait
Understanding A Fragmented Emotive Portrait of the Fan.
Who they are
Why they care
What role the artist plays in their life
What motivates them
What they may be willing to do next
Because once you genuinely understand those things, you're no longer simply marketing music. You're making better decisions across every part of an artist's career. And that changes everything.
Over the past few months, I've noticed something interesting. Across several major record companies there has been a noticeable increase in roles containing words like Strategy, Insight and Audience in them.
Now, on one level, I think that's encouraging. Certainly, anyone who’s been bothered to read any, or indeed all the last forty editions (40!?) of the Superfan Formula will know how fixated we are at Sound Effects on Strategy, Insight and Audience. For years we've argued that fan understanding deserves a seat at the commercial table. If the industry is beginning to recognise that, then that's a positive development.
But it also raises a much bigger question: Who should own fan understanding?
Not collect it, or report it. But actually own it. Because ownership is where strategic advantage lives.
PARTNERSHIP AND OWNERSHIP ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
Before I go any further, let me be absolutely clear. This is not an anti-label article. Most of us in Sound Effects have spent years working inside major record companies. Many of my closest friends still do. Some hold very senior positions. Great labels remain one of the most important partners an artist can have. They discover talent, develop recordings, build campaigns, open international markets and create opportunities that few others can. So, the relationship between artist, manager and label remains fundamental.
But partnership and ownership are not the same thing. In fact, I'd argue the opposite.
The better management understands its audience, the more valuable its relationship with the label becomes.
Better strategy leads to better briefs
Better briefs lead to better campaigns
Better campaigns produce better commercial outcomes
This isn't about taking something away from labels. It's about ensuring every commercial partner is working from the same strategic understanding of the audience.
THE MODERN ARTIST IS BUILDING FAR MORE THAN A RECORDING CAREER.
The modern artist is no longer just building a recording career; they're building a multi-dimensional business and brand.
Recorded music
Live
Merchandise
Brand partnerships
VIP experiences
Content
Licensing
Publishing
Community.
Direct-to-fan relationships
And opportunities that haven't even been invented yet. Every one of those areas depends on understanding the audience, so naturally that raises another obvious question: Why would understanding the entire business sit inside one partner whose expertise naturally centres on only part of it?
It shouldn't, should it. And again, that's not criticism, it's just simple commercial logic.
building and controlling a multi-dimensional fan eco-system
ONLY MANAGEMENT SEES THE WHOLE PICTURE.
Every partner should contribute insight – label, promoter, ticketing company, merchandise partner, CRM provider, agency etc – as every one of them sees something valuable. But every one of them also sees the world through their own commercial lens.
A streaming platform sees streams
A ticketing company sees ticket sales
A merch business sees products
A label sees recorded music
Platforms can provide reach, discovery and valuable behavioural data. But access is rented, the rules can change and none of those things, on their own, create an owned fan relationship.
None of them sees the complete picture. Only artist management does, because only management wakes up every morning responsible for the entire career and the whole fan ecosystem.
Every commercial partner should contribute its expertise. But the strategic understanding of the audience must remain with the artist and manager.
STRATEGY SITS ABOVE EVERY COMMERCIAL PARTNER.
This distinction matters. Real strategy isn't deciding what to post next Tuesday or optimising advertising or building yet another dashboard. Strategy begins with much bigger questions.
Who are our fans?
How many types of fans do we have?
Why do they care and how does that differ?
What identity does this artist give them?
Which relationships should we deepen?
Which opportunities strengthen the fan relationship instead of simply extracting value from it?
UNDERSTANDING IS BECOMING THE NEXT STRATEGIC ASSET.
One of the biggest changes in the music business over the last twenty years has been the gradual recognition that artists are far more than recording artists. They are businesses, brands and cultural properties, surrounded by a much wider fan ecosystem.
Their careers extend far beyond recorded music. Yet many decisions are still made as though the recording business is the entire business. It isn't. Recorded music is one part of a much larger fan ecosystem. Which means understanding fans has become one of the most valuable strategic assets an artist possesses. My concern is that many artists and managers may not yet realise its value until someone else is offering to manage it on their behalf.
History tells us that's usually the point at which ownership quietly changes hands.
Ironically, none of this weakens the role of the label. It strengthens it, because when management owns the strategic picture, every commercial partner benefits. The label receives clearer, targeted direction. Marketing becomes more focused, with campaigns becoming more relevant. Investment decisions become more informed and everybody is working from the same understanding of the audience. Everybody wins.
For years, the industry has often worked with every commercial partner pursuing their own objectives, while the manager runs between them trying to hold everything together. Strategy should reverse that, with management setting the direction and every partner contributing towards it.
WHO OWNS UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR AUDIENCE?
Over the next few years we'll hear much more about audience insight.
Consumer strategy
Fan intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Predictive analytics
All of those things will become increasingly important. But before artists and managers become distracted by the latest platform, dashboard or fashionable job title, I think there's a much simpler question they should ask.
Who owns understanding of my audience?
Because artists don't build careers inside one revenue stream, but build them across relationships, communities, identity, trust and how those uniquely shape an entire fan ecosystem.
And no commercial partner, however important they may be, should own understanding of a business they only partly control.
Never outsource understanding of your own audience.
Artists have spent decades protecting ownership of recordings, I believe the next decade will be about protecting ownership of understanding. Because once someone else owns understanding of your audience...
...they begin influencing the decisions that shape your future.
The music business has always fought over ownership. I think we've simply reached the next ownership debate.
Next week:
If long-term artist development and fan relationships are so valuable, why does so much of the industry still optimise for short-term extraction?
Because however good the intentions, the business model always wins.