'I am a one in ten': success ratios in the recording industry

Osborne, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4111-8980 (2020) 'I am a one in ten': success ratios in the recording industry. In: Music by Numbers: The Use and Abuse of Statistics in the Music Industries. Osborne, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4111-8980 and Laing, Dave, eds. Intellect, Bristol, UK, pp. 56-71. ISBN 9781789382532, e-ISBN 9781789382556, e-ISBN 9781789382549. [Book Section] (Accepted/In press)

PDF - Final accepted version (with author's formatting) Restricted to Repository staff and depositor only until 20 November 2021. Download (176kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

This chapter explores the recording industries statistic that only one in ten of its projects will succeed. It begins by outlining the origins of the one-in-ten statistic, before tracing its prevalence within the recording industry and its analyses within academia. It next examines the uses of the ratio when coupled with the employment of ‘new’ music. Finally, this chapter looks at the promotional literature of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which is deploying these tropes to defend the purpose of record companies in the digital age.

Actions (login required)

View Item