Artists without an income? : critical analysis of the value gap and its impact on emerging artists and the music industry

This thesis seeks to discover what are the consequences of the value gap, for the emerging artists and the music industry by critically evaluating the concept of value gap and what it means for the music industry. This will also lead the way to discovering how emerging artists are “making it” in the era of music streaming, and which aspects are playing a significant role in this. In addition, the consequences of the value gap in terms of creating value are discussed, both for the emerging artists and for the music industry. Lastly it is discovered that how is the music industry adapting to the changes that the value gap and the streaming services have created. The aim is to critically evaluate the notion of the value gap, and to discover whether is it a claim coming from the music industry, or are artists of today not receiving enough revenue for their music. The information is gathered by qualitatively interviewing emerging artists and music industry professionals in Finland. This thesis argues that value gap, is not as simple as the industry makes it look like. There is a common claim, that due to streaming services artists are not receiving financial value in the same as if they would sell records. Therefore it is seen that the latest technological developments in the music industry have made artists careers challenging, but this research argues that the situation is not quite as simple. It is true, that as a consequence of the value the artist work has come more versatile and multidimensional, as besides making music they need to also perform live, maintain an image on social media, have social connections in the industry and to understand the different hierarchical levels they might be faced with on their way to the success. However, this does not entail that the value is less, instead it comes from different sources and formats, and is not as direct as at the times of record sales. These changes have had an impact on all the sectors in the music industry, and significant consequences are visible for artists and enterprises in the music industry