Goldman Sachs just told the music industry to sell to fans first

Music industry executives have treated direct-to-consumer sales as a possible threat to streaming, but Goldman Sachs’ latest Music in the Air report finds artists can sell directly to fans without reducing streaming activity. EVEN founder Mag Rodriguez argues that this supports making direct sales a larger part of release strategies and artist-fan relationships.

The article cites Jessie Reyez’s album, whose direct edition with eight bonus tracks saw digital sales rise 384% and physical sales 99% against her previous album, while first-week streams stayed flat. It also says nearly half of fans pay above artists’ minimum prices, and points to J. Cole’s campaign, which drew about 600,000 presale sign-ups before more than 800,000 tickets were reportedly sold. Goldman estimates digital direct-to-consumer revenue could grow from tens of millions of dollars today to hundreds of millions over the next decade; Rodriguez believes the opportunity may be larger.