According to Nielsen, listeners streamed enough music between January and the beginning of July that total audio consumption (of which streaming represents 85%) was up nearly 10 points over 2019 for the year so far. This is a good thing for artists with large back catalogs.
Yet many artists delayed releasing new music during the pandemic. Touring is the main revenue source for an artist. Touring is also the traditional way artists support and promote their new releases.
With live performances no longer an option, you might think that artists would be more active with writing and recording. There is evidence to suggest that is happening. But if artists are recording new music they certainly are not releasing music at the same pace. This is likely due to the conventional approach the music industry uses to release new music.
That said, it could also be because artists aren’t getting the same inspirations. Or they don’t know what will “connect” in these strange times. But the most likely reason is that artists can’t easily record and be socially distanced. That has certainly affected our recording process.
Whatever the reason, there is likely a large backlog of new material that will be released in 2021.
From our perspective (Soul Pigeon), we have quite a few songs that are almost finished and we can’t wait to release them. We definitely have been challenged to do it safely and that has slowed the process.
Soul Pigeon 