Remember when we told you about that ambitious, groundbreaking survey on musicians’ revenue streams? Well, we’ve got all the data, and we’re now in the process of making it available via unique presentations that highlight specific areas of our research. Through ths ongoing effort, we hope to shed light on the large, diverse, and specialized group of folks that are musicians.

To get familiarized, check out our brand-new Artist Revenue Streams site, which showcases our presentations and project snapshots on an easy-to-navigate platform. As we continue to ask the data questions, we’ll be posting new insights, so keep your eye on this go-to site all things ARS.

Why did we do this research? Well, there’s been a ton of talk about how the music industry has changed — most of it focused on the impact on tradttional industry stakeholders, like labels and publishers. But what about artists? It seems pretty obvious that musicians have far greater access to audiences than at any other point in history, but what does this mean for their bottom lines? How have these technological and social changes impacted musicians’ ability to generate revenue based on their creative work?

We also wanted to capture information from the broadest possible set of artists: our ARS research surveyed an army of musicians working in the US — from film and TV composers, to salaried orchestra players, to session musicians, to teachers — representing a range of career structures and revenue opportunities. Ultimately, our research is about individual musicians’ earning capacity. It’s about what they end up putting in their pocket, and how it’s changing over time.

To understand how they’re making money, we simply asked them directly. And we’ve done that through three methods:

• in person interviews
• financial case studies
• a widely distributed online survey

Today, peoject co-director Kristin Thomson is presenting some key findings from ARS about musicians’ relationship to technology at SF MusicTech Summit. If you’re there, don’t miss it! Kristin also presented on “bands and brands” at MIDEM last month; check out the presentation here. All of this info will be available on our ARS page.

Team ARS will be on the road throught the year; check out the official website for the latest and greatest.