I’ll admit I often find myself humming a song under my breath. I can’t help but love the beats behind my favorite tunes. And I know I’m not alone —whether you’re a Hall and Oates groupie or an Avicii aficionado, we all want to get our groove on.
Which might explain why the music wars are still as hot as ever. The battle between the old-school music labels and new-world streaming services is still making daily headlines: from Spotify hitting its 50-million-subscriber milestone this month, to Chance the Rapper making history this year as the first artist ever to win a Grammy without selling physical copies of his music.
A lot of the debate involves the question of whether musicians are getting a fair shake or not, but recording artists are just one small sliver of music industry employment; there are a lot people working the line between the recording studio and your headphones.
So which one of the combatants in the music wars is doing the best at attracting and retaining the best talent? We took a quick look at some of the world’s most well-known music brands to see how they stacked up against their competitors in the Textio Index.
The outcome is clear: the newer, more innovative, online distribution platforms Spotify, Soundcloud, and Pandora are easily outranking the traditional powerhouses Universal, Warner, and Sony. Spotify has the biggest lead — it scored 30 points above Sony Music Group. Together the online services were nearly 20 points above everyone else.
These musical innovators know that the strongest teams are going to perform better over time — Textio has shown how the language used in a job post changes who applies, which ultimately determines who gets hired, and how fast.