Label-less artists generated $472m of revenues in 2017

According to a report put out by consultancy Midia Research, artists who aren’t signed to a label generated revenues of $472m in 2017, up 27.2% year-on-year thanks to distributors and platforms including TuneCore, CD Baby and Bandcamp. The company suggests:

While these numbers neither represent the death of labels nor the return of the long tail, they do reflect the fact that there is a global marketplace for artists, which fall just outside of record label’s remits.

Midia also says (backed up by other sources which talked to music biz online magazine "Music Ally") that the artists-without-label revenue have not been included in the IFPI figures in past years:

With nearly half a billion dollars of revenue in 2017 and growing far faster than the traditional companies, this sector is simply too large to ignore any more.

The controversy here would be if the artist-without-label revenues were excluded from the IFPI’s report next week, the body could face criticism: for example, if this is seen to inflate the claimed market shares of major labels.