Cheer Up: The Music Industry Is in Good Shape, Despite What You May Have Heard (Guest Column)

Back in 2013, as the recorded music business grappled with an historic collapse in revenues, a hapless reporter asked two artist managers their thoughts on the plight of the industry.

The response was bemused laughter.

Their No.

1 client was a certain One Direction .

Amid the wholesale collapse of the wider industry, they and their clients were having their best time yet.

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What’s Next — and Could Ticketmaster Really Be Sold? Dale Morris, Nashville Manager Who Guided Careers of Alabama & Kenny Chesney, Dies at 89 HYBE Pledges Over $300k for Colombia Earthquake Recovery It’s a potent reminder that in neither good times nor bad is success or good fortune equally distributed in music.

At the lowest points, someone somewhere is having a great old time; even in boom times, someone is miserable.

Which brings us to summer 2026 and the mood of an industry which seems, well, muted at best.

Scene One: a computer screen displaying a plunging music-company share price.

Camera pulls back to reveal a trader staring aghast at the numbers.

Scene Two: a cocktail party in the Hamptons.

A slightly grizzled but certainly well-to-do musician bemoans his lot, fragments of dialogue emerging over the hubbub: “Everything’s too difficult… There’s no money in it… AI will put us all out of work…” Having taken an unfamiliar “break” from the business these past couple of years, noses far from the grindstone, deep in garden leave — you should see the dahlias — may we be allowed to share a little perspective.

The music industry is in remarkably good shape.