8 Ways to Grow the Value of Music in 2026

In this episode, Dmitri and Eleanor walk through eight revenue multipliers reshaping the music business in 2026, including catalog valuation, revenue recovery, music licensing, and more.  This conversation sets up the theme for this year's Music Tectonics conference: "Rising Tide: Grow the Music, Grow the Value," exploring why music has massive cultural influence but a music industry that still lags behind gaming and sports in overall economic size. Dmitri and Eleanor dig into who this impacts across the music industry, from music tech founders and investors to record labels, publishers, managers, and the song catalog investment world. The conversation also covers the future of streaming revenue growth internationally, the unresolved infrastructure problems around music rights and royalty data, and why platforms like TikTok and Instagram are still not paying enough in music licensing revenue.  This episode sets the stage for the Music Tectonics Conference 2026, happening October 27-29 in Santa Monica, California, where the music industry and music technology ecosystem come together around innovation, investment, and growing the value of music. Get your tickets now at- https://www.musictectonics.com/  The news US music publishing revenues hit $7.3B in 2025, NMPA reveals at Annual Meeting honoring P!nk, Julian Bunetta and Harvey Mason jr. The music industry is closing in on a billion global subscribers – with Spotify out in front Four music datasets holding millions of tracks are being shared among AI developers, The Atlantic reports   The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!    Get Dmitri's Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.