If you follow anything music related, you will know about the major streaming companies that is Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. They are all in a race to solidify themselves as the better streaming sites. Taylor Swift infamously penned letters to both Spotify and Apple Music stating she would remove her entire discography until they agreed to pay artists more, however only Apple Music complied with her demands. Streaming has definitely shaken up the music industry lately. Streams now count towards the charts and an album can now go #1 based solely on streams, like Kanye West's latest album "The Life Of Pablo" was able to do.
One of the latest indicators that streaming truly is the future and shaping the music industry in a different way is this weeks Billboard 200 chart. Drake's latest album sold a little over 50,000 units however he landed up in the #1 spot. Ariana Grande's "Dangerous Woman" and Blake Shelton's "If I'm Honest" debuted in the number 2 and 3 spots for the week, however both albums sold well over 100,000 units. Drake's album held steady in the number one spot for four consecutive weeks, mainly due to streaming.
More and more artists are starting to embrace the power of streaming by releasing Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal exclusives. Rihanna, Beyonce, and Kanye all released their latest albums as a Tidal exclusive for a short time. Drake's latest album was only available on Apple Music and Meghan Trainor's newest album was released a week early on Apple Music.
As the days go by, you can't deny the fact that streaming is definitely changing the way we consume music. People don't really anticipate going to their local stores to buy physical CD's anymore. The amount of people downloading music off of iTunes has gone down tremendously. So much so, that iTunes has plans to completely get rid of the iTunes Store and replace it with their Apple Music streaming service. Pretty soon, most of the general population won't be buying any music at all, instead they'll all be paying a monthly fee to listen to an entire library of music. Record labels and artists have stopped fighting the new trend and eventually, so will everyone else.
