As soon as I heard about the plans for Jay-Z's new music streaming platform Tidal, I was instantly confused. An exclusive place just for certain artists and it will cost me either $10 or $20? Ridiculous. And now with Apple Music just starting, it seems as if there is a pull between which music streaming site is the best. I am an avid user of Spotify, I listen to music on there every day and have not downloaded or bought new music for quite some time. However, I am splitting a premium student subscription with my brother and it has worked out well enough for both of us. Since this is the case, it conflicts me because I know that Spotify does not give artists the right amount of pay for each listen their songs get.
Outlined on Spotify's website for artists, there are a lot of numbers and graphs depicting what an artist will make either on a standard subscription or a premium subscription. Currently, if a person has a premium subscription, Spotify says that user "delivers more than two times the amount of revenue to the industry," in comparison to the average U.S. music consumer. This brings up a huge problem though, as Spotify also mentions that they are paying the record labels--not the artist directly. So for every song someone listens to on Spotify, the record label needs to give permission to allow them to have it--most likely not thinking that the artist will only get 10 percent of a song they may have worked for years on. As much as I hate this concept and know that Spotify does not treat artists fairly (Taylor Swift was right in pulling her music out from them), I still continue to use the service. Why? It's so much easier to listen to music.
There's also the new Apple Music and Tidal services that is way more expensive than a student membership on Spotify. Many people can not afford paying for these services every month ($10, really?) and honestly, the pricing seems a bit ridiculous. And everyone knows about Taylor Swift's open letter, which had people make her out to be a greedy bitch, when really, she had some good points. Apple wasn't going to pay the artists--just like Spotify. So much work goes into making an album, renting studio time, etc. Swift was right in making her statement because yes, everyone deserves to be paid just like all the rest of us.
Now, music being free? That would be ideal. Chance the Rapper and Miley Cyrus recently released new albums--both free. Chance is known for releasing mixtapes, EPs, and singles that tend to be free. In a sense, this is what the world wants. We all want to listen to music, but paying for it? Think about how many hits and downloads Limewire had before it got shut down. Think about YouTube to MP3, where you can download any YouTube video into an MP3 for free. It's true that not all things in life are free but shouldn't something so universally loved be at least a little free?
