Music is a big cultural thing that people use as much as a method to identify themselves as a particular tribe (especially young people).
In many ways this is more important to many people than the actual music itself (even if they might deny such a thing), this is why certain musical acts become almost like rallying banners to certain subcultures (Bob Marley , Slipknot , Marilyn Manson and Eminem are examples of this) these acts are almost deified by their respective fanbases. Music celebrity culture is a very important part of every musical genre.
So simply providing a large library of great music is not always enough, many people don't actually want to sift through music catalogs to find something they personally like, they want to listen to what their friends listen to so that they can go to the shows together and bond over the music.
For example , if you talk to a bunch of teenage metalheads and many will insist that is is the one true genre of music and will not admit to listening to anything else even if they might enjoy it , lest it make them appear outcast from their hurd.
This is where the marketing is important , I would imagine that small minority of acts make up a huge percentage of actual music purchased. People want to listen to bands that have the money to put on huge worldwide tours so that they and their friends can attend.
I'm not so sure how an indie music startup could create such strong emotional attachment to the artists, the way major labels can do this is taking the right for the music in exchange for an advance and doing aggressive marketing of a small number of acts.
In many ways this is more important to many people than the actual music itself (even if they might deny such a thing), this is why certain musical acts become almost like rallying banners to certain subcultures (Bob Marley , Slipknot , Marilyn Manson and Eminem are examples of this) these acts are almost deified by their respective fanbases. Music celebrity culture is a very important part of every musical genre.
So simply providing a large library of great music is not always enough, many people don't actually want to sift through music catalogs to find something they personally like, they want to listen to what their friends listen to so that they can go to the shows together and bond over the music.
For example , if you talk to a bunch of teenage metalheads and many will insist that is is the one true genre of music and will not admit to listening to anything else even if they might enjoy it , lest it make them appear outcast from their hurd.
This is where the marketing is important , I would imagine that small minority of acts make up a huge percentage of actual music purchased. People want to listen to bands that have the money to put on huge worldwide tours so that they and their friends can attend.
I'm not so sure how an indie music startup could create such strong emotional attachment to the artists, the way major labels can do this is taking the right for the music in exchange for an advance and doing aggressive marketing of a small number of acts.