Guest
Christine Osazuwa
Christine Osazuwa is Founder at Measure of Music, as introduced on the show.
Episodes (1)
Christine Osazuwa, founder of Measure of Music, explains why the music industry lacks a career meritocracy and how investing in talent could fix it.
Questions these episodes answer
Is the music industry a meritocracy?
Osazuwa says no: unlike training to become a doctor or a lawyer, there is no reliable set of steps in music that guarantees a job, a promotion or a senior role, even for someone who does everything right, which she calls one of the industry's most frustrating structural problems.
From: The Reality of Music Careers on Breaking In & Moving Up
Does the music industry pay people equitably?
She points to pay equity studies from UK Music and her own salary transparency research showing white men earn more in base salary, bonus and equity than everyone else in comparable roles, a pattern that holds across major labels, indie labels and DSPs alike.
From: The Reality of Music Careers on Breaking In & Moving Up
Is the music industry's progressive reputation genuine?
Osazuwa calls much of it virtue signaling: an industry that accepts how people dress or look at work is not the same as one that changes who actually runs it, and she says real decisions still tend to be the safest, most conservative option available.
From: The Reality of Music Careers on Breaking In & Moving Up
Would paying music industry salaries more fix the talent problem?
Osazuwa says no by itself, because people are already willing to work in music for less than they could earn elsewhere, so the fix has to include investing in employees through training and real promotion paths as well as raising pay.
From: The Reality of Music Careers on Breaking In & Moving Up
Why does Osazuwa say rewarding talent before a hit matters?
She argues most breakout successes are largely luck and timing rather than a repeatable formula, so an industry that only rewards people after they land a hit misses out on the innovation and loyalty it would get from investing in talent earlier.
From: The Reality of Music Careers on Breaking In & Moving Up