The 2010’s… what a fucking decade. I had just turned 15 and started going through some teenager shit (sorry mom), music started consuming my life, and Columbia House was nearing its end as streaming began to take over. 

Don’t tell me you didn’t cop “B Day” by Beyonce, Chris Brown’s self titled debut album, and Ne-Yo’s “In My Own Words” for a good penny (best scam of the 90’s) 

Within these past 10 years some monumental changes, milestones, and crazes have happened in the music industry. Here are just a few of them: 

The Globalization of Pop 

The reach of American music has always been global. This time around it was not about the reach of American artist, but rather the influence of other artists, languages and genres on American pop music. The biggest reason for pop globalization in this particular decade has been due to the garnered adaptation of sounds and genres from outside the U.S. 

“Despacito” has been one of the biggest bops of this decade. Justin Bieber’s collaboration with Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee gave way to the incremental rise of latin music in American pop culture. Crossovers from Latin producers who have harnessed their sounds into mainstream hits have made Latin music the 5th most popular genre in America. Among Latin music, other genres and languages have started to slowly make strides in hitting our mainstream radios and Spotify playlists, these sounds have now become common adopters in developing smash hits. 

The Return of Boy (and Girl) Groups

This decade saw the emergence of One Direction, 5th Harmony, CNCO, Little Mix, Why Don’t We, the Jonas Brothers and then years later… the comeback of the Jonas Brothers. One of the most successful boy bands of all time, One Direction, owns a chart history that at times outdid The Beatles… the fucking Beatles.... 

Maybe it’s their adorable personalities, or the roles their vocal abilities seem to play in helping touch a series of genres? Over the past several years boy and girl bands have made of fandoms a modern cult-like following. Merch and content gets multiplied by the number of members in a group and soon enough labels and publishing groups are raking in the dough. 

However, the real defining element of this decades boy and girl bands didn’t come from the U.S., but rather from Korea. K-pop boy and girl bands have truly gone global, and the biggest names (which obviously right now means BTS) have got the world on a craze. BoA and Wonder Girls were the first to bring K-pop to U.S. charts, and slowly after other K-pop groups began transcending their way into mainstream U.S. media through collaborations, appearances, and sold out U.S. tour debuts.  

The (continued) Rise of Streaming 

Spotify has more than 100 million subscribers, and Apple Music is at 56 million paid subscribers. Today, streaming services make up 80% of the music industry's revenue...yup 80. Over the past decade since the emergence of Napster, formerly known as Rhapsody, music streaming has become one of the primary ways for people to consume music. The number of songs streamed over the internet increased more than eightfold between 2013 and 2018, and it shows no signs of stopping. As the years have progressed in music streaming, artists have paid closer attention to the streaming game, maneuvering their way through regulations, trends, algorithms, and playlists, hoping to reach the right audiences and assert their place in the industry. 

The Global Release Date 

In 2013 Beyonce surprised the world when she released a self titled LP and accompanied visuals with no promotion… the music industry was shook. Because of her, and because of the slow rise of streaming sites and increased number of illegal downloads (shoutout to my Limewire gang), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (some London homies with a big say) decided to unify the date of music release for all 1,300 of its member labels. On July 10th 2015, Friday became the world wide recognized music release day. 

Democratized Discovery & The DIY Artist 

With the increased use of music services and social media, the consumer regained the power and allowed themselves the portals to find and discover new artistry. SoundCloud democratized the music-making process in the 2010’s, making worldwide audiences available to anyone with some sort of recording device. Today, Tik Tok is becoming one of the strongest platforms for new artists to get their music discovered and gain a wide reach.

From Soundcloud, came the DIY artist. There was no longer the need for a label or publication, to have your music be hosted in a platform and heard by many. Soundcloud lead artists to become increasingly independent on their music journey, controlling their career and the distribution of their music. Nowadays, big labels are both trying to sign a lot of these independent artists, but also provide smaller opportunities for them to collaborate and retain their independence. Services made specifically for independent artists are starting to appear on major streaming platforms and label partners. These services are allowing artists to find ways to connect with audiences, measure their streaming success, register tracks and collect royalties.