As we see technology grow, we as customers expect that we will be able to buy and receive what we want as fast as possible. This concept could be said about music. We all want to be able to access our music easier, faster, and in some cases for free. With streaming services like Spotify becoming available, customers are able to pay a monthly subscription and stream as many songs as they would like without having to buy them. Now what I would like to share is about how artists are receiving income from the amount of streams of their songs on streaming services, like Spotify.
Growing up, I wanted to become a singer. I sang in many competitions that were local around my hometown and I would either place first or second in all of them. However, from the very beginning my parents told me that I would not have any guarantees of making it within the music industry. Becoming a singer was my dream and if I was able to spend my life making a living out of it that would be the best thing that ever happened to me.
Understanding why artists do what they do, gives you a different perspective. Artists have millions of fans who they love, adore and who have stuck by them. Artists do not love their fans just because they keep making money for them, but because they are the reason artists are able to continue living their dreams and doing what they love to do.
Keeping all of that in mind, artists now are not receiving as much income as many may think they are from streaming services, like Spotify. In an interview by PBS News Hour, Hari Sreenivasan speaks with an artist, Rosanne Cash and Ken Parks, who is the chief content manager and managing director of Spotify for the United States.
Mr. Sreenivasan talks to Rosanne about what it is like being an artist in the music industry today and how people today are streaming music more than they are buying and owning it. Rosanne also goes on to speak about how streaming services, like Spotify, has ultimately changed how artists make a living nowadays. She even goes into detail on how much money she makes as an artist from just six thousand streams. Below I have included a diagram of how Spotify distributes the revenue of the songs streamed.
Source: http://time.com/why-taylor-swift-spotify/
When Mr. Sreenivasan speaks with Ken Parks, Ken explains the reasoning behind streaming services becoming more prominent. Ken simply says that the music industry needed a new and inventive way to reach out to the new generation. They needed to capture this generations' attention on what the new and popular music is that is out there for them to listen to. In many ways, streaming services were made to expand and market hundreds of artists to everyone around the globe.
Within this interview, Mr. Sreenivasan sits down with Daniel Glass, who is the founder of the indie record label known as Glassnote Records. Daniel explains that Spotify is how many of his artists are now being discovered by the general public .and due to this the artists' concert tickets and album sales are immensely increasing. So what would happen to an artist who has chosen to not let their music to be streamed on a streaming service like Spotify?
As many of you know, Taylor Swift is one of the biggest artists to have her entire collection of songs be removed from Spotify. In TIME Magazine, Jack Linshi explains to many what Taylor Swift has gone on record to say as to why she removed all of her songs off of Spotify. Taylor Swift believes that streaming services like Spotify are decreasing the use of customers buying and owning albums. She feels as though Spotify is not giving artists the credit that they deserve. Taylor Swift says the amount of money artists make from streaming, from the service like Spotify, is not making up for the amount of time and money they spend and record labels spend on making their albums.
The question is will artists who are not as popular as Taylor Swift still receive as much attention from fans for buying their albums? Many believe that unless you can still guarantee that an artist has as many loyal and dedicated fans as Taylor Swift, they cannot depend just on album sales just to make a living. This has many wondering, how long will it take before the music industry decides to stop the production of CDs? This is due to the fact that the industry just cannot afford to make, sell, and distribute them to stores around the globe any longer. How long will it take before buying and listening to music will become only an online service? With technology advancing at the rate it is, it may not be long before music becomes a fully online industry. If music becomes a fully online industry, aside from concert sales, will it gain more revenue or will this create an economic downturn in the music industry?
As a customer, I totally disagree with the use of Spotify. I understand how much easier and faster it is to look up a single song, just listen to it. As someone who hopes to work within the music industry one day, I know that Spotify is a huge market strategy for getting artists to be discovered by millions of people. However, I feel that artists should be given the reward of receiving more money for releasing their albums.
Artists put their heart and souls into what they do every day. Many work hard for what they have accomplished. Being successful from working hard is what many of us want to achieve. So why should we not allow this same privilege to artists? This is a debate that many of those who are aspiring to work within the music industry will have to endure no matter what aspect of the industry they choose to be a part of.
