A few posts back I wrote about the difficulty of using proxies in music. Proxies are approximate measurements used to measure things which are difficult to quantify. That post discussed the use of proxies to try and determine which band was the greatest ever. This proves difficult because there is no one measurement for greatness and... Continue Reading →
Even though the X-factor does have some contestants with amazing vocal abilities, the best part of the show is arguably watching the auditions. As nice as it is to see people give good performances, watching bad ones can be incredibly funny. A lot of the times when I'm watching these bad auditions I find myself... Continue Reading →
One of the first ever posts on this site looked at the rise in ticket prices for Glastonbury. The point of the article was to explain the concept of inflation. However, in the post I noted that only a small portion of the change in price was due to inflation. I recently saw a video by the Economist... Continue Reading →
Anyone who follows this blog will know I am quite fond of Ed Sheeran. He seems a good singer, nice fella and above all has been the inspiration for a few of my posts on this site. It just so happens that I recently wrote an article for RTE Brainstorm which slightly relates to him.... Continue Reading →
This year I started writing posts comparing the size of the headlining acts of various festivals to see which festivals' headliners were bigger. To do this I looked at the three headlining acts for festivals and added up their combined number of monthly listeners on Spotify and then compared them to the headliners of other... Continue Reading →
Several of the posts on this site look at the effect which the release of a film about a musician has on the consumption of that musician's music. Most recently I looked at how the release of Rocketman sent Elton John's music back into the charts, and before that I looked at the release of Bohemian Rhapsody and Queen's music. Well with the... Continue Reading →
The music industry is one of the most difficult industries in the world to try and make a living in. This is because the majority of the money within the industry is controlled by a disproportionately small number of people within it. Basically the top 1% of musicians earn the vast majority of the money... Continue Reading →
This site by in large is a blog which tries to explain basic economic concepts using examples from the music industry. However, it also occasionally provides an economic analysis of events in the music industry in order to provide commentary on the world of music. A popular example of this was the recent analysis of... Continue Reading →
Music is an odd type of good, in the sense that it doesn't really have a physical form. Songs exist as a sonic entity and the only material we attach them to is the object which is used to deliver the music itself, so vinyl records, tapes, and CDs; but even today with the surging... Continue Reading →
