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Hypebot’s 2026 Music Predictions Roundup: Key Takeaways From Across The Industry

Hypebot’s 2026 music industry predictions series gathered perspectives from across the business. This includes distribution, marketing, law, retail, technology, audio production, and more. Here is a roundup of the predictions including a practical takeaway from each contributor.

,   and  Hypebot Editorial Desk
music industry predictions

Hypebot’s 2026 Music Predictions Roundup

Randi Zimmerman (Symphonic)

  • Key Takeaway: The rise of AI will push many artists to lean harder into unmistakably human elements — real instruments, imperfect moments, and “raw” creativity as a differentiator.

Jay Gilbert (Your Morning Coffee)

  • Key Takeaway: An important rights battle returns: Gilbert flags momentum behind paying performers for US terrestrial radio airplay, framing it as a long-overdue fairness shift.

Jesse Kirshbaum (Nue Agency)

  • Key Takeaway: Music’s ubiquity keeps expanding, and the next wave of growth will come from smarter bridges between artists, brands, and culture — especially as attention gets harder to win.

Chris Castle (Music Lawyer)

  • Key Takeaway: Expect new legal fronts: beyond rightsholders vs. AI, Castle forecasts fan-driven lawsuits over AI-created IP — and a bigger push to treat AI’s environmental footprint as a policy issue.

Con Raso (Tuned Global)

  • Key Takeaway: Streaming fraud will keep escalating, and combating it (plus artist impersonation) will require better detection — while alternative fan payment models continue to gain momentum.

Taylor Harnois (Music Shop 360)

  • Takeaway: Retail consolidates, hybrid wins: music retailers that match strong in-store experience with strong online operations — and use AI for personalization/efficiency — will outperform.

Bobby Owsinski (Audio Engineer & Podcaster)

  • Key Takeaway: Owsinski predicts major disruption around TikTok in the US and heightened artist pushback to label AI deals. Plus, a cultural rebound for “obviously human” recordings and performances.

Dmitri Vietze (Rock Paper Scissors, Music Tectonics)

  • Key Takeaway: Deepfakes, lawsuits, and new monetization mechanics could collide. Vietze paints 2026 as a year where broken infrastructure forces rapid reinvention (for better or worse).

Jacob Varghese (Noctil)

  • Key Takeaway: Metadata becomes survival-grade infrastructure. Varghese argues 2026 must bring enforceable data standards (including AI labeling) to protect attribution, licensing, and payments globally.

8 Predictions For 2026 From Around the Music Industry (Roundtable)

  • Key Takeaway: The “next” growth often looks like the “old” and the “new” at once. This set highlights everything from nostalgia-driven physical formats, to karaoke as a new revenue vertical, to scalable sync and metadata-driven monetization.

What ties these 2026 music industry predictions together

Across the series, a few themes repeat. These include the industry’s AI reality check (rights, attribution, fraud, and trust), the growing importance of metadata and infrastructure, and a renewed premium on direct fan connection. Whether through new payment models, community formats, or more human-first creativity, these are key.

Best of luck to you and your creative project in the new year!

Bruce Houghton is Founder & Editor of Hypebot, Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of Skyline Artists.

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