I think we’re facing one of our biggest crises to date.

I don’t know what the euphoria in the music industry is about. You have three problems you’d like to see fixed in today’s music business. Listen to MBW’s Podcast interview with Cohen above, and/or read an abridged version of our discussion below… However, Cohen also warns the music business to drop its current “euphoric” state, and think hard about how short-form video’s role must evolve to best serve the next generation of fans and artists.

And he believes YouTube Shorts can play a vital role in this evolution.

Problem No.3, says Cohen, lies at the door of record companies, who are struggling to break long-term artists with the level of regularity they’d like in this digital environment.Ĭohen believes the migration of fans away from long-standing social media platforms towards short-form video services is a major opportunity for the music business to foster true fandom in a vast potential audience globally.

Problem No.2, he says, lies with consumers themselves – and his concern that the next generation of fans aren’t currently delving deep into artists, their stories, and their catalogs.

Problem No.1, he says, is an expectation for modern artists to spend a significant amount of their time, creativity, and energy on certain social media platforms – platforms that in Cohen’s view rarely lead to deeper fandom amongst consumers.(Cohen doesn’t mention any particular platforms, but it’s worth noting that there’s been a lot of headlines written on MBW this year about TikTok’s failure – so far, at least – to launch a connected music service to its main platform.)Ĭohen argues that YouTube’s approach with its YouTube Shorts product offers an important distinction: A platform that hooks you in with short-form video – but then nudges would-be fans to longer/deeper audio and visual content about artists on both YouTube and YouTube Music.Ĭohen lays out three problems he sees growing to a head in the current music business: “Short-form video that doesn’t lead anywhere is the most dangerous thing I’ve seen the music business face in a long time,” says Cohen.Ĭohen believes that, if left unchecked, the rise and rise in music consumption on this type of short-form video platform could become one of the music industry’s “biggest crises to date”. On this MBW Podcast, Cohen – Global Head of Music at YouTube – explains his fears over short-form video platforms that fail to push users into deeper engagement with music and artist content.

Youtube cohen