Music has been one of the biggest mediums for self-expression in human history. With the advent of the internet, music was able to be distributed in ways we have never seen. Napster first exposed the potential of internet distribution. Millions of people could now have access to millions of songs for free. After the record labels got after Napster, iTunes was the next step. It gave the rights back to the creators of music, where people could be paid for their music fairly and legally.
But towards the start of the early 2010s, the advent of music streaming changed the way consumers behaved. Spotify was the first company to truly take advantage of smartphones and music. In 2011, they began their service in the United States. They gave their consumers a single price to pay per month: $9.99 a month for unlimited downloads of music and streaming of any tracks of your choice. The one major catch for consumers is that they never truly own their music, but rather they pay into a system where you can have access to millions of songs.
The premise of the system is clear and obvious for consumers, but for many artists, the benefits are often times less obvious. With the combination of ads and subscriptions sold, streaming services pay on a per-stream basis. For Spotify, that's $0.0038 per stream. Apple Music pays $0.0068 per stream, and Tidal pays $0.01284 per stream. With the help of social media, artists can generate plays on their respective services to create a revenue stream. This is not as effective as literal sales artists may get from iTunes singles or albums, but they do provide an easy to access way for new fans to get exposed to new music.
But as streaming music has become the primary form of music consumption, companies like Apple, Spotify, and Tidal now pose substantial threats to labels themselves. Most notably, Apple Music signed an exclusive partnership with Chance the Rapper when his Grammy-winning album Coloring Book was released. They did most of the advertising and helped push it to the mainstream, all because Chance himself was an independent artist. Streaming services are now poised to start signing their own artists, upending the very foundation of the music industry: the labels.
But regardless of whether labels stay or pass, music streaming has forever changed the accessibility for consumers to get affordable, legal copies of music from the artists they love. Yes, pirating still is a popular form of music consumption, but the vast majority of music fans stream their music through one of the big three platforms. For the first time, consumers are beginning to be in control of what music is considered "cool" and what isn't, and that's a step in the right direction.
Sources:
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/01/16/streaming-music-services-pay-2018/
https://www.economist.com/business/2018/01/11/having-rescued-recorded-music-spotify-may-upend-the-industry-again
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ReplyDeletelike how you compared the differences between the three major streaming services of Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal. I strongly agree that these services allow us to be in control of our music, since we are able to have access to thousands of songs for one monthly fee. Most artists usually don't sell their full album for $10, but on Spotify, for example, one month a user may download 3 albums, which may be worth $15 each. In that sense, the user is greatly benefiting from their subscription and saving $35. However, the drawback to this that you mentioned is that the music isn't really the users, but instead it remains on the platforms of the service that you are paying for.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting point about these music companies such as apple and spotify becoming labels. It beings me to wonder how it will effect the industry. I wonder if the companies will allow their songs to be played on other sites and platforms. If not, this start a trend of exclusive music, which may or may not be successful. While I can see that these companies will soon take over older labels that are dying out, I am unsure about how it will change the industry, and if it turns it in a better or worse direction.
ReplyDeleteI like how you went more in depth on how streaming music services such as iTunes and Spotify made money (unlike Napster, which kind of failed on the business side). Spotify, for example, allows users to stream music for free if they are willing to listen to advertisements or upgrade to premium service with a small subscription fee. Either way, Spotify makes money. Advertisers pay Spotify to promote their products which in turn helps Spotify pay their fees to artists and record labels.
ReplyDeleteNoah, I thought this was a very relevant post. I'm sure everyone listens to music, and these streaming services certainly have changed the way that music is distributed. I thought your focus on Spotify was interesting. You mentioned that Spotify was the first streaming service to really take advantage of the smartphone technology. I would have to disagree with you there. I would argue that iTunes, not Spotify, was the first music service to one, revolutionize the music industry, and two, take advantage of the smartphone technology. iTunes took the lessons from Napster and created a music distribution service that would not alienate the artists, despite competing with record labels. iTunes was the tsunami that came after the earthquake of Napster, and it changed everything in a way that Napster only had begun to influence. I think that Spotify certainly influence the music industry heavily, and will no doubt continue to change things. However, iTunes was the service that revolutionized the music industry of our generation, and that lead to the services we know today.
ReplyDeleteWhat you wrote about Spotify and music-streaming reminded me about Netflix and movie-streaming. Similar to Spotify, Netflix requires a certain payment per time period in order to access a large and diverse quantity of its product, in Netflix's case movies and TV shows. Just like how Spotify members never truly own the music they play off Spotify, Neflix members never truly own the movies they watch off of Netflix. Of course, just like how pirating music is still popular, pirating movies is popular as well.
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