Independent artists are a large and growing part of the music economy, but most published industry data describes the whole market or the major label system. The State of Independence exists to measure the independent part on its own terms, quarterly, with sources cited for every figure. The audience is the people who run this economy: business managers, label executives, industry executives, and artists deciding where to put their next dollar and hour.
The four research pillars
- Recorded music revenue and independent share: global and US revenue, and how much of it is earned outside the major label system.
- Streaming platforms and payouts: artist counts, upload volume, and what platforms actually pay at different tiers, using published sources such as Spotify's Loud and Clear reporting.
- Music advertising economics: what it costs to reach listeners, including 2025 ad spend, CPMs, and the marketing tools independent artists actually use.
- Artist income distribution: how many artists earn above real income thresholds, and how that income splits across streaming, live, sync, and direct sales.
Desk research is the first phase, and the ground rule is strict: every figure carries a source, a date, and a link, and reported data is never blurred into estimates. Where a number is an estimate, the report will say so and show the working.
The survey: 10,000 artists, first person data
Published data cannot answer the questions artists ask most: what a working independent career actually earns, spends, and struggles with at each level. So the report's second phase is primary research, a survey of up to 10,000 independent artists. Artists who complete the survey receive a free Artispreneur profile. The results will be published in the quarterly report and wired back into the Artispreneur knowledge base, so the answers improve the tools artists here use every day.
If you manage, represent, or work with independent artists, the most useful thing you can do is make sure your artists are counted. Careers at every level belong in the data, from first release to full time. Watch the Artispreneur Brief for the survey window and the quarterly findings as they publish.