Was Music Better in the Past? Music Marketing

Was music better in the past?

Before answering that question, I want to explain how I arrived at it. I love rock and metal, although I also listen to indie, pop, classical music and plenty of other things that escape easy categorisation. My taste is fairly eclectic, and I am writing here as just another music fan, drawing on my personal experience with music and everything I have learned over many years working in digital marketing.

My short answer would be that every era has produced extraordinary music, forgettable music and formulas created to achieve commercial success. What has changed dramatically is the environment. The format has changed, along with the way we discover songs, the time we give them, the production tools being used and the rules that determine what reaches us.

For decades, marketing helped music reach its audience. Today, platforms, metrics and algorithms also influence the form that music takes. I find that difference far more interesting than turning the conversation into a competition between generations.

Music changed when the way it reached us changed

From vinyl and cassette tapes to an infinite music catalogue

For much of the 20th century, the music industry was organised around physical objects. Vinyl records, cassette tapes and CDs contained a creative work while also giving it a particular form. There was a cover, a booklet, a track order and a running time shaped by the format itself. New releases reached audiences through radio, the music press, record shops, concerts, music videos and recommendations between friends.

Music marketing had to help you discover an artist, persuade you to visit a shop and convince you to choose that particular album from all the available options. Buying it represented a small commitment. You had invested money, time and attention in that album, so listening to it several times was the natural thing to do. Some songs connected immediately, while others needed several days to find their place.

Streaming as the dominant form of music consumption

Then came digital files, downloads, iTunes, YouTube and eventually streaming as the dominant form of music consumption. By 2019, streaming already accounted for more than half of worldwide recorded music revenue. According to the IFPI Global Music Report 2026, it represented 69.6% of global revenue in 2025 and generated more than $22 billion.

The transformation has been enormous. We now carry millions of songs in our pockets, we can discover a band from any country within seconds and independent artists have access to distribution channels that were previously beyond their reach. Music circulates with extraordinary ease, and audiences have far more opportunities to explore.

That abundance also changes the perceived value of each choice. When everything is available, leaving a song behind takes a single movement of the finger. The next option is already waiting. The transition from a limited catalogue to an almost infinite one has reduced friction and accelerated consumption.

The value of physical formats within the experience

It is significant that physical formats have recovered some of their appeal while streaming continues to grow. IFPI reports that physical format revenue increased by 8% in 2025, driven by a 13.7% rise in vinyl sales. This marked the nineteenth consecutive year of growth for vinyl. Part of the audience is still looking for a tangible experience, a cover, a collection and a physical connection with the music that matters to them.

The evolution of music marketing can be understood as a transition from scarcity to abundance and from distribution to permanent availability. In the past, artists needed to secure space in shops, on radio stations and in the media. Later, they needed to appear in search engines, platforms and playlists. Today, they also need to enter algorithmic recommendations, vertical videos, trends and conversations that often last for a very short time.

From listening to albums to consuming songs

Avalancha during my secondary-school years

My relationship with Avalancha by Héroes del Silencio illustrates this difference very well. The album was released on 18 September 1995, five days before I turned sixteen. Based on my age and the fact that I progressed through school without repeating a year, that coincided with my third year of BUP during the 1995–1996 academic year.

Perhaps I bought it immediately after its release or sometime later. That precise detail has faded, but I remember what really matters. That CD travelled with me throughout my school days and remained part of my life for months. I carried it in my portable CD player, the device almost everyone called a Discman, after previously using a Walkman and cassette tapes.

I listened to it endlessly. I knew the order of the songs, anticipated the beginning of the next one and eventually associated every track with specific moments. The album occupied physical space, travelled in my backpack and required a decision in advance. You had to choose which CD to take with you, and that album usually stayed with you for the entire journey.

Repetition, familiarity and autobiographical memories

Psychology helps explain why that repetition could strengthen the connection. Familiarity initially tends to increase our appreciation of a piece of music, a phenomenon known as the mere-exposure effect. A review of aesthetic experience and the sensory qualities of music describes an inverted U-shaped curve. Early repetitions can increase preference, while fatigue can emerge after a certain point.

We also know that music activates autobiographical memories with particular intensity. Petr Janata’s research into the neural architecture of music-evoked autobiographical memories examined the relationship between songs, memory, emotion and processes connected to our sense of self. This helps explain how a song from our teenage years can suddenly transport us back to a place, a person or an earlier version of ourselves.

Physical formats added another component. Within the study of consumer behaviour, Russell Belk developed the concept of possessions as extensions of the self. The things we own can contribute to our identity and reflect it. A signed CD, a concert ticket, a T-shirt or a record collection says something about the person who keeps it. A song accessed temporarily within a digital catalogue creates a different kind of relationship.

The format alone did not create attachment. Repetition, personal context, the effort involved in choosing, the quality of the work and the time spent with it all acted together. CDs encouraged that ritual because they limited the immediate alternatives. Streaming supports a different kind of experience, shaped by access, discovery and mobility.

The song as the new unit of consumption

Today, we might hear a song because it appears in a meme, accompanies a fifteen-second video or starts playing automatically after another track. We may like it, save it and continue scrolling. The contact can achieve enormous reach while remaining relatively shallow. A brief impression can help us recognise the song, although recognition and attachment represent different levels of connection.

This change affects the basic unit of consumption itself. An album proposed a journey, while today each song competes individually. Even within a newly released album, every track faces the possibility of being skipped, added to a playlist or used as a short fragment on social media.

The platform also enters the recording studio

This is where one of the most important connections between music and marketing appears. A platform distributes, recommends, measures and organises attention. These four functions ultimately send signals to artists, producers and record labels about what they should create, release and promote.

Musical attention is also measured

Spotify counts a stream when someone listens to a song for at least thirty seconds, as explained on its official page about how streams are counted. That rule serves a technical and financial purpose, while also creating a visible threshold. Getting the listener to reach the thirty-second mark has value.

Its influence extends far beyond a single figure. The ability to capture attention during the opening seconds, the length of the introduction, the point at which the vocals begin, the arrival of the chorus and the total duration of the track can all be analysed through data. Creative decisions now coexist with skip rates, completion rates, repeat listens, saves and playlist placements.

Academic research already examines this phenomenon as a transformation of the creative process. An article published in Popular Music describes platforms as infrastructures that co-construct music production, distribution and reception. Artists and producers may optimise their work according to what they imagine the algorithm will classify, recommend or reward.

TikTok, virality and music communities

TikTok and short-form video add another layer. Part of the strategy focuses on finding a fragment that can work as a sound, dance, meme or emotional background. Recent studies involving music creators and short-form video platforms show that virality has an increasingly brief lifespan and that many artists are trying to transform that exposure into a longer-lasting community. Research into the limits of virality is particularly interesting because it places the sustainability of a career above an isolated peak in attention.

This evolution offers clear advantages. A small band can find listeners in several countries without waiting for a major record label to open every door. It can learn more about its audience, test content, organise a tour using geographical data, sell directly and maintain a daily conversation with the people listening to its music.

When metrics influence the musical product

The difficulty arises when the tool begins to define the objective. A metric helps us interpret one part of human behaviour. When it becomes the dominant criterion, the whole proposition starts moving towards whatever produces a rapid and measurable response.

The same thing happens in marketing. Bringing a product or service to the people who may need it requires an understanding of those people and a carefully constructed path for reaching them. Growth loses strength when the product is continually modified to appeal to the largest possible number of people. In music, a clearly defined identity can bring together a specific audience for years. A series of decisions designed to capture a few seconds of attention may generate many streams while leaving a weaker memory. This connection between audiences, needs and identity is also present when defining a buyer persona within a marketing strategy.

The platform has therefore become part of the market and part of the product itself. It influences cover artwork, release schedules, duration, collaborations between artists, promotion and even composition. This is one of the major differences within contemporary music and one of the issues that any music marketing strategy should understand.

Ultra-processed vocals and increasingly similar music

In discussions about food, we continually hear recommendations to reduce our consumption of ultra-processed products. Something curious happens in music. Many of the voices we listen to have passed through so many layers of editing that, with a little creative licence, we could describe them as ultra-processed vocals.

How a voice is processed in music production

Modern vocal production may begin by selecting and combining the best parts of several takes. Noise and breaths are then removed, pitch and timing are corrected, equalisation is adjusted, dynamics are compressed, sibilance is controlled and saturation, doubling, harmonies, reverb and delay are added. Finally, the voice is reintegrated into the overall mix and mastering process.

Tools such as Auto-Tune analyse the pitch of the vocal signal and can move it towards the appropriate note within a scale. Melodyne allows producers to adjust pitch, timing, vibrato, phrasing, formants and dynamics. Suites such as Nectar include pitch correction, de-essing, breath control and vocal layering. A basic vocal chain can include pitch correction, compression, equalisation, de-essing, delay, reverb and other effects.

All these tools can improve a performance, solve technical problems and open up creative possibilities. Auto-Tune can also be used as an intentionally obvious aesthetic effect. The relevant question concerns the intensity, intention and final result. Processing can reinforce a personality or soften it until it approaches a familiar standard.

Processing, identity and musical homogenisation

Avalancha was also carefully processed and produced. Bob Ezrin handled production, while Andrew Jackson was responsible for engineering. Commercial recordings from the 1990s already used editing, equalisation, compression, effects, mixing and mastering. The experience I remember emerged from a work with powerful production, a particular format, repeated listening and a strongly defined sonic identity.

The interesting conversation therefore begins with the difference between production and uniformity. A study published in Scientific Reports analysed approximately 500,000 popular songs released between 1955 and 2010. Its authors found a progressive restriction of pitch transitions, a homogenisation of the timbral palette and an increase in loudness. The study provides data supporting a feeling that many listeners describe intuitively, although its period and methodology encourage caution before making generalisations about all contemporary music.

The mainstream has always looked for formulas. Radio stations, sales charts and record labels also created incentives to repeat what had already worked. Algorithms add speed and precision. Reactions can now be measured almost immediately and replicated on a global scale. A particular type of voice, duration, rhythm or structure that delivers results quickly becomes a reference for new productions.

A more varied musical diet

The analogy with food helps explain another aspect. A varied diet provides different substrates for our gut microbiota. The American Gut Project, involving more than 10,000 participants, found that people who reported eating more than thirty different types of plants per week had a more diverse microbiota than those who consumed ten or fewer. A study published in Cell also found that a diet rich in fermented foods increased microbiota diversity and reduced inflammatory markers.

Scientific evidence supports a relationship between dietary variety and microbial diversity. Food intolerances are influenced by many factors, and current evidence encourages caution before attributing them directly to a repetitive diet. A simpler idea is enough for our comparison. Variety nourishes more diverse ecosystems.

This relationship between nutrition, habits, the body and strategy also deserves another reflection, which I will explore in a future article about marketing and fitness. Both fields involve cumulative processes, adaptations and promises of rapid results that are worth examining from a broader perspective.

A varied musical diet also broadens the ear. Listening to rock, metal, pop, indie, classical music, jazz, electronic music, flamenco or music from other countries exposes us to different structures, timbres, rhythms and forms of performance. That diversity improves our ability to appreciate nuances and creates more routes for discovering artists.

Recommendation systems could become powerful allies for that diversity. They have access to an immense catalogue and can connect very small niches with suitable listeners. At the same time, their tendency to use previous behaviour to predict our next choice can keep us within a comfortable area. Personalisation works best when it combines familiarity with discovery, just as a good diet combines continuity with variety.

Reaching everyone can leave a weaker impression

Popular music faces a paradox. It has never had such a powerful ability to travel so far, and it has never competed with so many stimuli at the same time. A song can travel around the world in a week, appear in millions of videos and disappear from the centre of the conversation just as quickly.

Reach, attention, memory and loyalty

From a marketing perspective, reach, attention, memory, community and loyalty represent different outcomes. A stream indicates contact. A complete listen indicates greater interest. Saving a song adds intention. Buying a ticket, purchasing a vinyl record, wearing a T-shirt or following a band for years expresses a much deeper relationship.

Confusing these levels leads to strategies that celebrate large figures while building very little brand equity. The music industry needs reach to discover audiences, while a career is sustained through identity, repertoire, narrative, community and shared experiences. The strategic goal is to transform borrowed attention into a direct relationship.

From listeners to a community built around music

This idea connects with what I explained after my experience in Viveiro. In the article A cultural event concentrates decisions, I analysed how Resurrection Fest brings together searches, journeys, purchases, priorities, memories and recommendations over a few days. Music acts as the connecting point around which a complete experience is built.

A festival demonstrates something that streaming can sometimes conceal. Listeners also want to belong, share cultural codes, meet other people and turn music into a visible part of their identity. Live performances, merchandising, physical formats and original content help transform a scattered audience into a recognisable community.

The role of music marketing

The most interesting form of music marketing works at this deeper level. First, it understands what makes the artist distinctive. It then identifies the people most likely to connect with that proposition. Next, it selects the appropriate channels, formats and moments to facilitate discovery. Finally, it creates reasons for people to stay.

Platforms play a fundamental role in that journey, although they represent only one part of the ecosystem. The artist’s website, an owned database, email, concerts, specialist media, collaborations, communities and physical objects can build a relationship that is less dependent on a single algorithm.

There is also an enormous opportunity for bands with a strong identity. When part of the mainstream converges around similar sounds, structures and campaigns, differentiation becomes valuable. A recognisable voice, a coherent visual proposition, a genuine story and a carefully developed relationship with the audience all help an artist occupy a clear place in people’s minds.

Marketing delivers greater value when it amplifies an identity that already exists. It can find niches, interpret data, organise releases, improve digital presence, coordinate advertising, position content and transform a concert or an album into a broader experience. Strategy provides direction and continuity while the music preserves the qualities that make the artist recognisable. This way of working connects with my perspective as an SEO and digital marketing consultant, where every channel fulfils a particular function within a shared strategy.

My answer to the opening question therefore requires more than a simple yes or no. Music from earlier periods was heard within a system that encouraged permanence, repetition and attachment to particular albums. Contemporary music circulates within a different system that encourages availability, discovery, speed and measurement.

Both environments have produced great work. They have also generated formulas, excesses and products designed to take advantage of the dominant channel of each period. The difference today is that the channel knows about every skip, every repeat and every second of attention, and that information returns to the creative process almost in real time.

Avalancha stayed with me for months because the right album, a particular period of my life, a format that demanded a choice and hundreds of listens all came together. Thirty years later, I still associate it with that school, that backpack and that portable CD player. That kind of mark is difficult to measure through a stream.

Perhaps that is the most useful lesson for music and marketing. Reaching people is essential. Remaining with them requires identity, time and an experience capable of becoming part of someone’s life.

My opinion on music and marketing today

I enjoy the ease with which I can now find bands, revisit albums and move between genres. Today’s level of access represents an enormous achievement for any music fan. I am also interested in observing how that access changes our habits and how metrics influence the decisions made within a creative industry.

Vocal processing, algorithms and short-form video form part of the language of our time. They can produce memorable songs and brilliant campaigns. Their strongest results appear when they are used to develop an original proposition, bring it to the right audience and sustain a relationship that continues beyond the first impact.

Music needs marketing to find its audience in an environment filled with options. Marketing needs to understand that a song, a band or an album has an emotional dimension that grows over time. Speed can open the door. Identity gives someone a reason to stay.

You can also visit my professional profile on Google Maps or write to me through my contact page to discuss marketing, search visibility and digital strategy.

fusion_global=”17304″]