✘ 2025: The Year of Culture (and Why You Should Care)
And: Music industry as a field of cultural production; Boiler Room sold again; GEMA sues Suno; UMG to dual list in the US?
2024 saw the music industry pivot once again, shifting its focus from the fleeting hype of NFTs to the seemingly more sustainable ground of AI and "Superfans." Suddenly, every corner of the industry was buzzing about building "superfan platforms," advising artists to meticulously cultivate their most devoted listeners and monetise those relationships.
This constant pivoting, however, often feels less about truly empowering artists and more about finding new ways to extract value from fans while lining the pockets of those already at the top.
So, where does "culture" fit into this ever-evolving landscape?
Over the past decade, social media has undeniably democratised access to audiences and creative tools. Yet, this democratisation has come at a cost. Social media algorithms, designed to maximise engagement and advertising revenue, have fragmented our cultural experiences, prioritising trends, clickbait and brand safe content over genuine connection and meaningful artistic expression.
We’ve also experienced a 5 year withdrawal of major brands like Red Bull and Vans from supporting early-stage artists and grassroots scenes which created a significant gap in artist development, leaving the industry without the resources and mentorship they need to thrive.
The truth is, the industry often gets things backward. "Superfans" are the culmination of a successful artistic journey, not the starting point. It works a little something like this…
A Holistic Approach
Building a sustainable and fulfilling career as an artist requires a more organic and holistic approach. It's about nurturing a unique artistic vision, contributing to a vibrant and supportive creative community and cultivating meaningful connections with your audience.
This year, I believe the industry will begin to recognise the crucial role of "culture" in the long-term success of artists. While some may attempt to artificially engineer or "tech-enable" cultural movements, true artists will continue to build their careers brick by brick, fostering genuine connections and creating work that resonates deeply with their audiences.
So here are some of the artists who got it right and why it’s turned them into superstars that are able to monetise what they’ve built.
Case Study 1: Stormzy
Stormzy’s community was always at the very centre of his creative expression. Every music video has always included people from his real friendship group, a lot of whom have been with him since the very beginning, including his longtime manager. Utilising #merky as a central point for his online community, Stormzy was able to galvanise people around his movement in a time when community platforms weren’t lauded or utillised in the way they are today. Whether it was 2015’s roughly produced ‘Shut Up’ or 2019’s politically charged ‘Vossip Bop’ or even 2022’s ‘MEL MADE ME DO IT’, referring to his long term stylist where he included many of his showbiz pals, Stormzy has always cared about his community and centred the people he cares about and that has resulted in the #Merky brand with a publishing company, football academy and university scholarship fund. All natural extensions of the brand. Meanwhile his engagement in various beefs with other big names in the UK grime scene has maintained his credibility as an artist as he gained commercial success and gave his fans more reason to galvanise around him in support. The infamous back and forth between Stormzy and Wiley created headlines and forced fans to pick a side causing them to band together and increase the strength of his fandom.
Case Study 2: Doechii
I couldn’t leave out Doechii here. Her meteoric rise in 2024 was unmissable. Building her ‘Swamp Princess’ brand around her upbringing in Florida, she created a world that draws strong connections to Ballroom Culture, Drag Queens and NYC Hip Hop. The LGBTQIA+ community provided her foundation for her fandom. She’s also often referred to the creative scene in Tampa as strong roots for her expression “ “Everybody knows everybody,” she says. “It’s a pretty small scene, but at the same time, it’s a big city. … Tampa is really like what Florida actually is.” (Spin Magazine, 2022). Her reason for singing to TDE was because of the all black team she would get to work with and her resolve to stick to her creative vision and cultural roots is what has carried her forwards.
Doechii seemingly appeared from nowhere last year but if you dig deeper you will find that she began an online diary posting to YouTube and sharing music on Soundcloud since 2016. Working out her artistry, the story she wanted to tell and who she is as a human being all very publicly, caused fans to form deep emotional connections to her. Forming an invested fanbase on these platforms and honing her ability to be brutally honest about her own life and existence made it a natural transition for her to go viral on TikTok with ‘Yucky Blucky Fruitcake’, a platform that thrives on no thrills, painfully honest content. With a particular TikToker (@theesudani) triggering a snowball effect of die hard fans sharing and utilising Doechii’s music in their own content.
There is no doubt she will continue to influence culture in 2025. Her hyper choreographed performances, non-gender conforming styling and lyrical prowess have proved that her day one fans placed their faith in the right person and her recent Tiny Desk performance cements her as a legend in the making.
Case Study 3: Yung Lean and The Sad Boys
Yung has always been an interesting artist because he was very much part of a scene from the outset. One of the pioneers of Soundcloud rap he recently parted ways with label Year0001 but when he signed with the label in 2016 it provided a home for artists like Yung Lean. Bladee and Jonatan Leandoer96 to further spread the sad boy low res, electronic punk mixed with rap sound they had developed. Complemented by erratic visuals often shot by other members of the community the palette they generated was entirely off putting to most people but galvanised a particular scene with tumblr providing the perfect place to showcase and share it. Back in 2013 tumblr was the favoured social platform for music and culture discovery and Yung Lean was able to utilise memes around his Gingseng Strip 2002 release that flooded the platform and caused a surge in interest from a very specific online community.
His approach to visuals often caused the press to speculate whether the project was a joke and he was often described as the ‘weirdest’ rapper you could ever hope to come across. While it was bizarre and confusing to the mainstream, it was exactly this that caused his fans to gravitate to him. He was entirely anti-establishment.
His decision to stay working with producers and collaborators from his local scene, avoiding the temptation to work with big US names meant that he was able to craft his sonic palette and stick with it, even as he attracted global attention. Yung Lean’s commitment his artistry in this way have allowed him to outlive and grow beyond his 2013 virality and sustain a career that has evoked a deeply loyal fanbase.
The commitment to a sonic palette and visual identity eventually gave the sad boys the power to do collaborations with the likes of eyewear brand Chimi, footwear brand Eytys and New Era to name a few, his aesthetic is a much sought after influence on fashion and design.
Conclusion
So as we ponder how the music industry progresses from here and where to invest our time and money over the next twelve months, and hopefully beyond, it would be wise to tap into culture or fund the people who are really close to it and allow them to build as the next great superstars.
Welcome to 2025: the year of CULTURE.
LINKS (Charlotte x Maarten)
👀 The Music Industry as a Field of Cultural Production (Jing Yi Teo, Armen Nalbandian, Johan Michalove, MacEagon Voyce)
“The drum that rolls like this: Spotify sucks, streaming’s model is broken, fraud is rampant, all that is bleak turns into gold but only for the major labels and streaming platforms, alliances that have revealed themselves to be a deepening cartelization, leaving indie artists to get increasingly and disproportionately lost in the gaps, gaps that would deepen and widen with generative artificial intelligence, which would serve technology’s final, fatal blow to music as an art form. But what if we began there, with the assumptions and logic so convenient in wringing the music industry’s discourse into an incorrigible, hopeless result ensnared in platform capitalism’s all-consuming path?”
✘ We definitely need more people thinking differently about business models in the music industry. Why not start with culture?
🌡️ Boiler Room acquired by European events giant Superstruct Entertainment (Henrietta Taylor)
“Boiler Room, which is based in the UK, has stated that its team will remain responsible for its leadership while owned by Superstruct. Superstruct, a global live events giant, owns 80 festival brands spanning Europe and Australia including Field Day, Creamfields, Y Not, Elrow, Sziget, Mysteryland, Hideout, Sonar and Flow.”
✘ Boiler Room going the way of Bandcamp? Getting bought by companies who take some benefit and then sell it on, perhaps mainly based on cultural value and vibe as much as a business prospect. It seems to sit well in the Superstruct family, but with Dice still being the ticketing partner - it sounds like a good deal for them.
⚖️ GEMA takes legal action against AI-based generative music platform Suno (Andre Paine)
“According to GEMA, the AI tool generated audio content that is similar to original songs such as Forever Young by Alphaville, Daddy Cool by Frank Farian, Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega and Cheri Cheri Lady by Modern Talking.”
✘ GEMA had already sued OpenAI and it’s continuing apace with Suno now. We keep following along to see whether all this simply results in Suno et al being licensed or whether it will have more impact.
🗠 Universal Music Group set to list on US exchange; Pershing Square to sell $500m in UMG stock to make it happen (Mandy Dalugdug)
“We exercised our right to cause UMG to list in the U.S. because we believe it will substantially increase demand for (and the valuation of) UMG shares from investors who by mandate are limited to investing in securities listed on U.S. exchanges, and likely attract additional analyst coverage for the company. We also believe the U.S. listing will greatly improve trading liquidity for the shares.”
Bill Ackman, Pershing Square Holdings
✘ This is the next step in the ongoing struggle between UMG and its shareholder Pershing. It looks like this dual listing will happen so we’ll have to see how that impacts both the performance of the UMG stock and the struggle for control on the macro business side.
MUSIC
I’m really enjoying the resurgence of Indie Pop that has flooded my TikTok FYP recently. Master Peace is leading the way here and with a collaboration with Wale on this EP he’s firmly cementing himself as a very credible force.
It’s really exciting to see a genre that was so dominated by white male artists in the 00s re-emerging with a bit more diversity and new perspectives.
That Doechii Tiny Desk really is one of the best of the whole series. I love the way she's bringing new, younger fans into her culture with context and callbacks to so many of the greats that came before her.