Nowadays, we don’t really depend on vinyls,tapes or CDs to listen our favorite songs, when we can just access the internet from our smart phone and enjoy the vast amount of music library ready to be download or stream from online distributors and streaming companies websites, for a small monthly fee. I personally enjoy putting music in different playlists because each playlist reciprocates the mood that I am feeling at the moment, or in my free time I listen to albums from my favorite artists. Now the question on whether it’s a good or bad thing really depends on the payroll of the artist putting the music out.
Now that CDs and tapes are barely being sold by popular demand, we now have streaming sites. If you own a smartphone, chances are you have Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, and/or YouTube installed. I have all 4, obviously because they’re free...but also, I cannot gain all access to the music that I want to listen to. A mixtape or album by Beyoncé, for example, can be available on Spotify but not Apple Music, but Apple Music won’t release her music until a year or so. Beyoncé will still get paid for the release, just not as much as she thought it would be due to the fact that not everyone has Spotify. If the average amount an artist makes on Spotify per stream is about $0.006 to $0.0084, imagine the ways that they will have to split all of that up with the contributors of their music. As scary as that sounds, that doesn’t mean artists are just flat out broke, they just don’t carry a million-dollar bankroll after releasing just a single or an album.
With issues like piracy, of course it will become more difficult for artists to receive funds because the consumer is now enjoying the product for free. The artist gets nothing. Some people may not see it as a big deal, but it is crucial for an artist to get views in order to get paid for the art that they put out. It’s like pouring your emotions out as an artist, and someone steals that fear or joy you put out… just for other people to enjoy, but for free. Views and numbers are what help them get ahead in the music industry. The more views they get, the more money they’ll make…
Despite the laws of copyright, there is always someone posting musical content of the artist taking away the views the artist actually needs to survive off of.
In conclusion, streaming sites are nice to enjoy as a consumer but not as a producer. Music is a controversial art that should be enjoyed, and artists deserve more than a couple of cents per stream. Although, there are over 7 billion people on this planet, there is always someone who will leak music for other to enjoy for free. Artists are doing what they can to please their audiences, but how can they experience joy if they’re competing with views? In a sense, streaming sites became more of a competition among starving artists rather than something to enjoy to share for their consumers.
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