Who wants to FOLLOW the trends signing the next big thing when you can TELL the people what is big?
The newest trend, I’ve just read in the Biz & Finance section of yesterday’s WSJ (I don’t know if it’s available online, but you can try finding it by searching on the author’s name: Hannah Karp), is for Swedish songwriters, who have had successes writing hits for the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears and others here, to develop their own stables of performers. Since the death of the CD and the rebirth of the single (alas without a B side), songwriters have been hurting, earning royalties only when they hit on a hit. Previously (and I suppose still), songwriters collected for each of sold album’s fillers, whether radio played them or not.