Commercial dreams

Angel Ramirez Jr. released his first 12-track album, Nomadic Way To Be, on music streaming platforms in December. He spent years writing and producing the record, but releasing it wasn’t the Los Angeles native’s biggest recent accomplishment.

In February, one of Ramirez’s other songs aired during the most-watched television event of the year: the Super Bowl. It was featured in a commercial for the free streaming service Tubi.

In 15 seconds, Ramirez made exponentially more money than his 43-minute album will make all year.

“The single is king,” Ramirez said.

With the advent of streaming at the turn of the century, music consumption habits changed, and with that came a change of priority for ­musicians. Early on, artists hoped to create singles that would top streaming playlists. Now, artists aren’t just trying to win listeners, they’re aiming to woo production teams that work on commercials, television shows, and movies. For most of them, that’s the only path to financial success.

Until the beginning of the 21st century, musicians made good money on album sales. Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the bestselling album of all time, sold 20 million copies in the two years after its 1982 release. The bestselling album of 2022, Taylor Swift’s Midnights, sold the equivalent of 6 million copies in its first two years.

In the 1980s, artists and their production teams grossed about $1.50 for every $10 album sold. As one of the most popular artists of his time, Jackson’s royalty rate was higher. He made $134 million in the two years following Thriller’s release. The other songwriters who collaborated on the album also benefited.

“If Thriller was the only song that was big on that album, and I wrote the 10th track that nobody knew, I would still be able to buy a house because people were buying the album,” Ramirez said.

Music lovers once lined up outside record stores for their favorite band’s new release. New music was a tactile experience. Streaming changed all that.

Today, purchased music in all formats makes up only 10% of music consumption.

Streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, which charge a monthly unlimited listening fee, capture most of the market.

But that new model is bad news for musicians. Spotify, for example, pays artists just $0.004 for every stream, on average.

So instead of focusing on albums, songwriters like Ramirez aim at landing a sync deal, when a third party pays artists to use their songs in a video format—commercials, TV shows, or films.

Earth, Wind & Fire performs at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Terry Wyatt / Getty Images

Creating 15 seconds of music requires a completely different approach than a 12-track album. Ramirez says it’s actually much more difficult.

When writing an album, the music flows out of an artist’s own creative expression. That’s organic. When a company like Tubi commissions an artist to write a 15-second jingle, it’s about hooking the audience for the brand.

Ramirez calls it ear candy. But this kind of commercial creativity, even for full-length songs, has a short shelf life. Listeners are still hungry for last century’s musical artistry.

According to a 2024 study by Luminate Data, music over five years old made up more than 50% of the streaming share across every genre.

That’s partly why record labels and investment groups began buying up old catalogs of music instead of investing in young talent. Universal Music Publishing Group, for example, bought Bob Dylan’s entire catalog for an estimated $300 million in 2020.

Scott Frankfurt, a music producer and studio owner in California, says listeners still appreciate the artistry that goes into creating a full album of music.

“The reality is young people are still going to Earth, Wind & Fire concerts because real people wrote songs with real intent, recorded them with the best people they could find, with the best gear that they could find,” he said.

Creating an album was a collaborative experience that’s lost on today’s singles and sync music.

“One person sitting in front of a laptop for four weeks trying to crank out a single is not the same as skilled musicians talking to each other and working out arrangements and parts and all that stuff,” Frankfurt said.

In the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, record labels had only so many spots for up-and-coming artists. Producers gambled on what they saw as young, raw talent with the long game in mind.

Today, the converse is true. Labels generally only sign artists who already have a substantial following on social media.

In the ’90s, Tim Sommer worked for Atlantic Records in its Artists and Repertoire department, where he helped launch bands such as Hootie and the Blowfish and the Beastie Boys.

He hopes appreciation for albums will make a comeback, thanks to one artist in particular.

“I think Taylor Swift has made an entire young generation interested in music,” he said. “Do you think there was a 12-year-old in America interested in sitting down and listening to an album before Taylor Swift came along?”

That’s largely because Swift has a brand fans are invested in. The trick, it seems, is getting enough people to care about the artist as a brand to buy an entire album.