Independent vs. Signed Musicians: Does Thier Status Affect Their Success?

As technology has advanced and become more widely available, and as the public learns more about the recording industry and its workings, more musicians are choosing not to sign with record labels, becoming independent musicians. This now raises the question: does a musician’s status of independent or signed determine their level of success? It has been previously found that independent musicians have a more difficult time competing with signed musicians due to the resources provided by record labels and the way labels negotiate with large streaming platforms, giving signed labels more opportunities to be seen in the public eye, but the question still remains if this makes a large difference. This question is of utmost importance because as more musicians enter the music industry, they wade through the many pros and cons of being signed or independent. This is determined through quantitative data analysis, with success being determined by amount of streams in one year, and rankings, which are taken from Billboard Top 100 charts. It is found that independent musicians are not at as severe a disadvantage as proposed previously, as they rank comparably to signed musicians and average similar streams for each ranked song.