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Paid music subscription streams rose 124% in 2016, downloads down 24.8%
- Thread starter ElectricBlanketFire
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Spotify is just such a good value. Every week, I find at least a couple new bands on Discover Weekly on Monday, cruise through their various albums during the week, then work through the daily mixes (which are also great, and lead to their own great finds) over the weekend. And then there's a fresh batch for me on Monday morning.
At $10, it's a no-brainer.
That does seem to be the rub, yeah. Though I wonder how much broader a band's audience can be now, and how that might end up coming in handy for shows. But that's purely speculative - I have no idea what the actual effect is.
At $10, it's a no-brainer.
That does seem to be the rub, yeah. Though I wonder how much broader a band's audience can be now, and how that might end up coming in handy for shows. But that's purely speculative - I have no idea what the actual effect is.
Spotify has been well worth it for me, $10 for 3 months of on demand music or a single CD is an easy decision. I usually jump around various services for promotions they have. Right now I have a small overlap between Spotify and four free months of Google music. I haven't found a single service that I absolutely love though.
Yeah it sucks for the musicians, but I wouldn't buy music otherwise anyway, just stick to free streams or the radio.
Yeah it sucks for the musicians, but I wouldn't buy music otherwise anyway, just stick to free streams or the radio.
UnemployedVillain
Member
Musicians always made the majority of their money from concerts and touring, IIRC
Is this where we ask you how you got 3 months of music for 10$?
It was one of the promotions last year.
AHA-Lambda
Member
How so?
If musicians ain't getting paid enough that's a label problem, not the fault of Spotify etc
Mushroomer25
Member
Spotify is increasingly the best $10 I spend every month. Feels like an infinite array of music, consumed guiltlessly.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
If you want to give money to musicians then go to their concerts.
If you can find 5 others, you can nab a "family" plan for $15, making it $2.50 a month.
Granted, everyone in my "family" plan are friends, but still.
edit: math
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
Hale-XF11
Member
My understanding is that musicians make less than pennies on streaming services. The majority of their income comes from touring.
As per the OP, streaming is up and downloads/albums sales are down significantly.
If you're just a studio musician who doesn't tour and only writes and makes albums, you're basically getting hosed by the industry.
aygomyownroad
Member
Google Play Music for life.
My mum asked "how could you pay for music you never own?"
I explained that its £10 a month and that's for all releases. All old albums the works.
She still doesn't understand. But hey.
My mum asked "how could you pay for music you never own?"
I explained that its £10 a month and that's for all releases. All old albums the works.
She still doesn't understand. But hey.
SugarDaddy
Member
I mean ya, legal music downloading is down because you can get unlimited streaming with offline listening for $5 a month if you're a student or $3 per person if you do a group/family plan. Unless I missed something and they're talking about piracy vs paid music subscriptions
Hidden One
Member
I really do enjoy Apple music.
Mammoth Jones
Member
Yup.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
Streaming is the future, still can't believe people buy CD's and individual albums on iTunes
Yeah I doubt this is taking pirate downloads into account. A fuckton of people I know still pirate. A guy came into work with terabytes of pirated music trying to sell them on disc. I said your a bit late there mate. I don't pirate though. Spotify is too handy. I do feel guilty over how much the artists get ripped off though. Fuckin horrible labels.
Yea, I do this with Apple Music and my "family".
I was mostly just asking because I find it funny when people post "deals" that are clearly not the norm without any information about it.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
On the other hand, I know a lot of people who stopped pirating once they subscribed to a service.
Like Netflix streaming, it can still be a hassle to listen to what you want. Albums become available, and drop off. Some artists sign exclusive deals with one particular service. Many albums offer only a few tracks to stream; want to hear the rest? Buy the album.
I enjoy my MS Groove subscription, but sometimes it just ain't easy to listen to what you want.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
Spotify is great.
LegendofDragoonLives
Member
Yeah, my buddy has his account, his two brothers, and me on his. None of us pay other than him though.
Yup. It's like Netflix and similar: provide convenient ways to pay and people will do it
What's funny is that I definitely never spent $10 a month on music before. But now I am doing it and technically getting less since I own nothing.
SugarDaddy
Member
Easier to stream than to pirate music, unless you're talking FLAC files. It's also harder to justify now that the legal alternatives are so cheap. Not sure what this info means as far as musicians go, I'd be interested to see how much streaming has affected the profitability of music artists vs before when it was primarily download legally vs pirate
I finally took the leap and signed up for Google Play Music last year because of a three month trial. So far, pretty happy with it and will probably continue with a paid subscription going forward.
It's nice to pay a flat fee and be able to have access to all the music I want rather than paying $15+ for one CD. My only complaint is that the availability of the music is not at my discretion. i.e. an artist could withdraw their library from Google and make themselves Apple exclusive, etc.
It's nice to pay a flat fee and be able to have access to all the music I want rather than paying $15+ for one CD. My only complaint is that the availability of the music is not at my discretion. i.e. an artist could withdraw their library from Google and make themselves Apple exclusive, etc.
Unless their a struggling indie artist I don't really care. The people who complain about it the most are typically millionaires that are set for life, they'll be fine.
DarkJediKnight
Member
As revenue from sales drop, the cost for live (i mean lipsynced) performances go up.
"Struggling indie artist" can define entire genres.
I buy my music. I don't like wasting data and permanence and collecting appeals to me.
TheTylerRob
Member
It's okay to enjoy streaming services while acknowledging that they're making the music industry worse. Support artists everyone.
Exactly. In my case is $3 but still, it is a steal.
Yeah most of the people I know that pirate anything just do it for early leaks of bands that they're likely either supporting by going to concerts or buying outright later. They're the sort most hardcore of music listeners so they've got a subscription to Spotify or whatever, too.
Didn't realize I'd be old and obsolete before I hit a quarter-century. I'm still buying my music, mostly digitally for the convenience but occasionally on CD as there's a lot of limited-run pressings of stuff I like. I'd buy a lot more digitally if Apple or someone else big offered lossless versions, even if it was akin to iTunes Plus; got a lot of music I'd happily convert from 128KBps AAC.
If I'm hunting for new music free Pandora and store recommendations/Youtube are good enough for me. I'd rather put more money into musician's pockets at this point too, as it's pretty clear the rise of streaming is a detriment to most of them. The cost doesn't make sense for me, because unlike something like Netflix where I'll likely only watch a given show or film once or twice I listen to my music for years and repeatedly.
If I'm hunting for new music free Pandora and store recommendations/Youtube are good enough for me. I'd rather put more money into musician's pockets at this point too, as it's pretty clear the rise of streaming is a detriment to most of them. The cost doesn't make sense for me, because unlike something like Netflix where I'll likely only watch a given show or film once or twice I listen to my music for years and repeatedly.
GeordieMark
Member
Not at all surprised. Spotify and Apple Music are fantastic services and great value for money. I can usually find anything I want to listen to on one or the other. Streaming has completely stopped me buying albums or pirating. The only music I buy outright are old vinyl to DJ with.
NekoFever
Member
I don't listen to a lot of music and buy 3-4 albums a year. It's cheaper to buy the CDs than to pay a monthly subscription fee that I won't use. And I get a perfect copy that belongs to me forever of an album that I cared about enough to buy it.
If I just want one certain song I'll pay £1 to get it off iTunes.
Not a surprise. Like everything streaming is much more convenient, and there's so much to discover.
Honestly, I just can't afford $10-$15 per album anymore at this point in my life. I'll buy individual songs no problem, but I ended up paying for streaming subscription service and it's been well worth it in my opinion.
Honestly, I just can't afford $10-$15 per album anymore at this point in my life. I'll buy individual songs no problem, but I ended up paying for streaming subscription service and it's been well worth it in my opinion.
northernflights
Neo Member
The labels aren't the only party negotiating the compensation.
Essentially, copyright laws are gonna need to be shaken up before either the streaming companies or record labels decide to give their artists fair comp
Rest
All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Not the case. In the 70's and 80's, labels ran the concerts, and would set them up as loss leaders to sell records. That's probably part of why so many musicians that were successful during that time are broke.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Apple Music is dope, haivng all my shit on my iPhone, Mac, and PC helps a ton; that and it only costs me $4.99 a month so...yea.
I contribute to this "problem"
I contribute to this "problem"
Rest
All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
Except that streaming services try to pay nothing for music, even though they're greatly profitable. There's been a lot of discussion about this, the services negotiated prices for when they were starting out, had little to no revenue and weren't sure how successful they'd be. They convinced labels and artists, like MTV did, that they're new and unproven and shouldn't really have to pay. Now that they're bigger they try to say "that's not a token royalty, that's the standard rate," even though it's just a token royalty.
CDs are far from dead. I feel bad for the people who's livelyhood will be affected by streaming, but they're gonna have to adapt. Bandcamp and crowd funding are some of the things I've seen some artists take advantage of.
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