Are Music Startups Destined to Fail?

I run a music "startup" that is in the "extremely saturated" space he is describing. We're now 7 years old, have 10 employees and have been profitable since 2005 with no VC.

There are many opportunities in the music startups, just as in other industries. Find a market need. Test your product, and iterate quickly. In our case, we found that by bundling a website builder with tools to promote and sell music is something that musicians want to pay for. We're not the only one, there are many profitable companies in this space.

The anti-music startup sentiment has been picking up steam lately. Its hard to argue against it being a difficult space to be in, but are we really ready to just turn our backs on innovation all together? Music needs startups--more now than ever before. 1000s may fail (and probably already have!) but just one needs to hit it big in this space for us all to be better off.

When everyone else is saying "run away", its the brave(/stupid) who keep pushing forward that win in the end.

I have seen time and time again friends trying to innovate in the music space getting screwed over due to the monopoly powers granted via copyright. When there are 4 record labels that are able to act in tandem and that together hold the rights to 90% of the music released on labels in the US, they are bound to hold people back.

Artists don't have to sign away their rights to labels, but unfortunately that has not changed at the pace that many had hoped it would. The real innovation needed here is a way for artists to be able to go it alone and break away from the control of the labels.

I think record companies would be making a lot more money right now if they'd embraced Napster and started to compete with their own websites. But that's hindsight.

The music industry isn't going anywhere. The successful startups related to the music industry will be the one's which adapt and change with a growing market