The Evolution of Music: How Streaming Changed Everything
Introduction
Ever since music began, people's musical preferences have
been constantly evolving. From vinyl records to cassettes, CDs, digital
downloads, and (eventually) streaming services, it has been a transformative
process. And all of these advances combined don't seem to match the impact of
the music streaming revolution on all things technological, cultural, and
economic.
How Has Streaming Music Changed Everything?
Streaming platforms like Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music,
and YouTube Music have disrupted the way consumers access, discover, and enjoy
music. What used to be a business of physical sales and radio exposure is now
under threat from iTunes, which is a service that's available at the flip of a
button and is played in the background. While this growth has been a boon for
artists, fans, and labels, it has also raised moral and financial questions
that continue to dominate industry debate.
This article examines how streaming transformed the music industry, changed the release strategy, upended the traditional income model, and made access more democratic, all while posing challenging questions about how musicians should be paid and the future of music in general.
New Releases in the Streaming Era
A new release (either an album or a single) had a
predictable life cycle in the days before streaming. Within weeks or months, it
would release a song, become the number one single on the radio charts, sell
out, and then fade into obscurity. To capitalize on this short attention span,
record labels heavily invested in marketing.
That paradigm has been overturned by streaming. Compared to short-lived singles, albums have a far longer lifespan in the digital ecosystem. Fans can stream any song from any album at any time; they are not required to buy a record on the day of release. Days after release, this gives both mainstream and independent musicians a steady presence.
Take the case of the album Midnights by Taylor Swift of 2022. When it came out, several of the songs on the album topped the charts simultaneously since listeners listened to the entire album at once. With the streaming age, each song can have its own following, having albums available for months or perhaps years later.
With artists, the implication is that chart battles will no
longer be about shots in the sun but rather about developing sustained
interest. To listeners, it implies that music is no longer tied down to a
release date; it can be there whenever they want it.
The Growth of the Industry Through Streaming
However, contrary to the apprehensions that digital
streaming would kill music revenues, it has done just the contrary. Streaming
is now the strongest growth engine in the industry.
Spotify reached 100 million paid subscribers around the
world in 2019. That figure increased more than twice to as many as 236 million
premium subscribers by 2024—all of them on one platform. Billions of dollars
are being pumped into the industry on a yearly basis across all the streaming
services.
Approximately 70 percent of streaming revenues are received
by rights owners, including record labels, publishers, and distributors. It has
transformed the industry and made it come back to life following years of
reduced performance in the digital piracy era of the 2000s.
Once again, Taylor Swift is one example. Her album Midnights
earned her billions of streams on various sites, which helped Universal Music
Group increase its profits significantly. In a sense, streaming has taken the
place of the lost revenue of shrinking CD and online download sales.
In the case of labels, streaming is a guarantee of steady
revenue. To artists, it provides a means of reaching out to the world that
physical distribution could never achieve. To the audience, it is an
unprecedented deal: unlimited access to millions of songs at the price of a
single CD every month.
The Artist Compensation Dilemma
With its success, however, streaming has been a
controversial topic, especially in terms of what portion of that revenue makes
it to the artists. Although the streaming services do pay royalties using
advertising income and subscriptions, their payouts per stream are infamously
low.
As a case in point, it can take a song to be played
thousands of times before the artist makes a couple of dollars. Whereas global
stars with significant followings, such as Drake, Ed Sheeran, or Taylor Swift,
can make millions through streaming royalties, smaller or independent artists
find it difficult to earn a living.
As Taylor Swift herself pointed out in 2023, although streaming
can offer invaluable exposure, the royalty system is still not perfect. She
pointed out how there is no relationship between the billions of streams that
are generated and the relatively low income that most artists get.
Streaming sites also know about the criticism and have
tested solutions. Spotify, in particular, has provided artists with the ability
to offer their songs to premium subscribers only, along with the ability to
boost per-stream revenues. Nevertheless, the same problem remains: streaming
has democratized exposure but has failed to democratize revenue equally.
The question of artist payment is not quite settled yet, and
it is one of the most significant problems the industry is going to face in the
future.
The End of “Free” Music Perception
Most people thought that when streaming initially became
popular, it would be a free, advertisement-funded means of listening to music
indefinitely. However, with the maturation of the platforms, it started to push
listeners towards subscription.
The reasoning is quite easy: the free one becomes less
valuable. Paid subscriptions not only offer a source of revenue to platforms
and artists but also allow users to access improved features such as offline
downloads, better sound quality, and access to ad-free experiences.
Other platforms tried exclusive content deals, in which the
album by an artist was exclusive to one service (e.g., an album by an artist
released by Apple Music). This was not popular with fans, though, as they did
not want to have to use multiple subscriptions to listen to all their favorite
music.
Exclusivity is a hard-to-find feature today, supplanted by
curated playlists, recommendations that are driven by algorithms, and features
such as Spotify Discover Weekly. Such tools add value to subscribers without
damaging the fragmentation of music libraries among competing services.
Subscription Culture and the Shift from Ownership to Access
The shift to accessing music as opposed to owning it is
perhaps the deepest cultural change brought about by streaming. Music
consumption was based on ownership: vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, or digital
downloads. Today, listeners can now listen to practically the whole recorded
history of music each and every month at the cost of just one album.
This is reminiscent of the same changes in the film and TV
industry using Netflix, Disney+, or Amazon Prime Video. The doubts that fans
would not be willing to pay the monthly fees on music have been disproved
beyond any reasonable doubt—hundreds of millions of people are willing to do
so.
To consumers, this is the ultimate convenience. To musicians,
it is a way of competing against not just contemporaries but all musicians of
history, as the old and the new catalogs are equally available. To the
industry, it implies that it should create business models that are recurring
revenue-based instead of a one-time purchase.
The subscription system has made access democratic.
Independent artists are able to post their music through digital distributors
and have a chance of reaching the same number of people around the world as
chart leaders. Radio DJs, physical retailers, and MTV do not control what
people listen to anymore; the gatekeepers of the past are slowly fading.
Playlists and algorithms, playlists.
The Double-Edged Sword of Playlists and Algorithms
Personalized music discovery is one of the characteristics
of streaming. Placed in a curated playlist such as the Rap Caviar playlist via
Spotify or the Today's Hits playlist via Apple Music, a relatively unfamiliar
artist may go mainstream overnight.
Meanwhile, the use of algorithms brings new problems. Now,
artists are under pressure to create songs that fit the streaming format: a
hook in the first 30 seconds, a shorter length, and a beat to go viral on
platforms such as TikTok. To an extent, this runs the risk of homogenizing
music, since recipes are preferred to experimentation.
The influence of playlists is indisputable, though. They are
the radio of the present time, and they influence what millions of listeners
listen to every day.
Education and Training for a Future of Streaming
Colleges and universities such as the Atlanta Institute of Music and Media (AIMM) are modifying their programs to prepare the future generation of musicians with skills relevant to the streaming age.
Playing an instrument or writing catchy songs are no longer
prerequisites; instead, you must understand how digital distribution, metadata
optimization, audience analytics, and monetization operate. Just as important
as traditional musicianship is knowing how to create a presence on platforms
like Spotify, YouTube Music, and even social media like TikTok.
The focus of schooling has shifted since the music industry can no longer be seen as being outside of the technological sphere. Digital literacy is necessary for success; creativity alone is not enough.
Conclusion
One of the biggest changes in the history of the industry is
the emergence of music streaming. The entire universe of music is now
accessible to anyone with a working internet connection, democratizing access.
Listeners now have more privacy and personalization than ever before,
performers have achieved international fame, and record firms have been
revived.
But it has also changed the value of music and raised challenging issues regarding the ability to compensate artists. It has also changed art itself, as creators modify their creations to meet the requirements of algorithms, playlists, and international competition.
Finally, streaming is the cornerstone of the contemporary
music ecosystem, not just a novel method of music consumption. The
democratization of music release, consumption, and purchase, as well as the
democratization of performers' career growth, has been altered in a society
that places a high value on digital technology. As technology advances, the
relationship between music, business, and culture will also evolve. However,
there is no denying that, in the era of streaming, the music we listen to has
fundamentally changed.