The Creative Challenge

The creative challenge was to take a complex system and break it down into a comprehensive and understandable systematic map.

My personal objective was to create a map that can teach the viewer a lot about the inner workings of the music industry at a glance - starting from the creation of a song, going through the distribution process and eventually ending up in the ears of the consumer through various channels. It highlights all the funnels that lead into the $53 Billion annual revenue that music makes while also delivering key facts and insights such as statistics and trends regarding streaming, consumers and social media.

Another part of the creative challenge was to speculate where this system might go in the future. For this, I created the following presentation:

Key Findings & Results

The research I conducted revealed some fascinating insights.

Being a musicians myself, I had a detailed awareness of the process that goes into creating a song, but I did not have an in depth understanding of the complex systems at play beyond that. I learned about all the core channels of revenue, which include:

1. Publishing:  Licensing songs to films, tv, ads and games etc which accounts for $8 Billion (15%) of the total $53 billion revenue.

2. Live Performances: Bring in $15 Billion (25%) of the revenue and is the main source of income for superstars like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen.

3. Distribution to physical mediums as well as streaming brings in the bulk of the revenue - $30 Billion (57%) and streaming accounts for 72% of the distribution revenue - it's the most popular way to consume music although some physical mediums like vinyl are making a comeback in niches.

Using all this data collected, i created the systematic map below:

What I learned

Apart from the insights mentioned above, I also learned about the progression of the industry - how streaming is the main way music is consumed today, contrary to the CDs and digital downloads in earlier years, and how social media is now the main avenue for record labels to find talent and music on TikToks and instagram reels is one of the most significant contributors to marketing.

Some key insights about consumers were also found, such as:

1. Music consumption peaks among older teens and young adults, specifically those aged 16-24. Adults aged 45-54 also show high levels of music consumption, but it tends to decline after age 55.

2. 35% of all music listeners access music illegally.

3. The average person listens to 20 hours of music per week.

4.For every paid subscription, there are 3.6 music streamers who use free services.

5. YouTube is the leading free music consumption platform (2b users), followed by Tencent in China (800m)

Reflection

The Systems Oriented Design elective with Alberto Iberbuden was an incredibly wholesome experience. The information was disseminated beautifully, the discussions were stimulating but what really set this class apart was a fundamental focus on weaving mindfulness practices with education.

We spent considerable time outdoors, observing systems around us. We did guided meditations and stretching before diving into big tasks and it was incredibly effective in giving a sense of clarity and calm. We often forget how much impact our physiology has on the way we think and the work we do - and seeing it addressed in bite sized chunks has opened up a gateway for me to delve deeper into mindfulness practices in my personal life.

I think the class overall was exemplary and gave me hope for the future of education - it really demonstrated that things can be approached in a radically different way.

References

Statista. (n.d.). Music - Worldwide | Statista Market Forecast. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/app/music/worldwide [Accessed 28 Jun. 2024].

Chartmetric. (n.d.). Chartmetric: A Music Data Analytics Tool With Insights Driven by Data Science. [online] Available at: https://chartmetric.com/ [Accessed 28 Jun. 2024].

IFPI. (2023). Global Music Report 2023 - State of the Industry. [online] Available at: https://www.musikindustrie.de/fileadmin/bvmi/upload/06_Publikationen/GMR/Global_Music_Report_2023_State_of_the_Industry.pdf [Accessed 28 Jun. 2024].