There are many good musicians in YouTube and other social media networks. I wonder if it is still profitable to go into the music industry. If it is, then what genre is still profitable? Nowadays, we only buy a specific song that we like and not the album.

Music has and will always remain profitable and what matters is how much a musician puts in. Most of the successful musicians we see now have had a journey and competition keeps growing each passing day. I wouldn't classify good music in terms of genre because all good musicians would be singing in some type of way.

 

I think that it has to do with producing music that is good to the ear and connects with a particular audience.

I believe the music industry is still very profitable. Even a single good song can earn enormous profits for the artist in terms of royalties, live performances, etc.

Singles can earn big bucks, but it's not just about the sale of the music itself. It's about the sales of advertising revenue related to YouTube video releases, or Merchandise, or concert sales, or royalties if your music gets picked up to be featured on a commercial or show or movie.

That's right @Zack T because more and more people are opting for the less-traditional options. Nowadays, musicians are churning out more and more singles as opposed to releasing a full album. There is more to just releasing a song.

The music industry is more profitable nowadays than in previous years with the help of social media. We don't need a promoter or a studio for us to record a piece of music because we just upload the music we have done in the social media platform that we like.

YouTube views are much more profitable these days than selling an album or even singles. One of my favorite groups on YouTube is The Piano Guys. They have millions of views in their music that fans are the ones who wanted for this group to have a live concert.

What you guys said are true and I have to agree with all of you. I may be thinking narrowly because I was focusing only on the sales and not on the other ways of monetizing music.

Back in the day, The Grateful Dead made more money through their tours than with their record sales. There are digital ways of monetizing your music, and there is still the old-fashioned way: Touring. This is for bands though that wish to stick around for 20 or 30 years, like Blackberry Smoke. The ones who just want 1 or 2 hits will go the digital route.

I'd imagine touring is much more profitable than streaming. Admittedly I don't know how much YouTube royalties are, but Spotify pays musicians peanuts. I have a friend who uploaded his music to Spotify and he gets paid fractions of a cent for every play. Even if your song has a million plays, the payout isn't very high. It's almost nothing compared to the amount of work that went into recording the song.

They say that if you have an expert marketer, you can make tons of money even if you have a mediocre band. The same could be said for most forms of entertainment.