How streaming is saving the music business

There has never been a more vast, diverse, and readily available body of music to explore. But how does a below-the-megastar-radar artist or band survive the new paradigm?

|
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP/FILE
Ed Sheeran performs on NBC’s ‘Today’ show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on July 6, 2017.

I stream. You stream. We all stream our music these days. Nielsen recently issued an ear-opening report that says Americans’ music consumption is downright conspicuous, increasing to the tune of 12.5 percent year over year. Nielsen estimates that in 2017, the average American listened to music about 32 hours per week (up 5.5 hours from the previous year), and, with earbuds snugly in place, people increasingly ingested it via on-demand streaming sources like Spotify and Apple Music. Nielsen reports that on-demand audio streams increased 59 percent last year.

Sounds like awesome news for us music lovers, right? Well, yes. There has never been a more vast, diverse, and readily available body of music to explore. However, only 29 percent of music streamers hold a subscription and so pay for the privilege, according to Nielsen. “That’s a problem,” writes Los Angeles music publisher Abby North in an email. “We have already lost countless songwriters and musicians to other industries. We need to support great musicians so they can continue to share their music with the world.”

Napster’s momentous arrival on the scene nearly 20 years ago planted the seed in the minds of some that music “should be” free. Now, with a $10 monthly payment (or no payment at all if ads don’t bother you), a Spotify subscriber gets instant access to roughly 35 million songs. As of this spring, Spotify had a listener base of 170 million who use it monthly (75 million paid).

The spectacular growth and monetization of streaming (however imperfect) is the big music industry story of the past decade. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, last year’s recorded music revenue from all over the world returned to the revenue level of 2008. CD shipments continued to drop, with the format likely continuing its slow march to the Museum of Ancient Technology. Miraculously, though, our plucky friend the vinyl record continued its logic-defying 12-year growth spurt, up 9 percent over 2016 figures, per the Nielsen report, reanimated by Record Store Days every April and November. 

“It’s the music fan’s reaction to the intangible nature of digital streaming,” Glenn Peoples, a music data analyst based in Nashville, Tenn., says of vinyl’s appeal. “It’s real. It’s colorful. You can hold it in your hands.”

So who is benefiting most from these millions and billions numbers? The highest-ranked artists in 2017 for total volume, which includes albums and streaming, were Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and Future, according to Nielsen. Singer-songwriter Sheeran, with 6.3 billion streams on Spotify alone last year, dethroned 2016 streaming king Drake on the streaming service. 

Meanwhile, concern continues in the music industry over those whom we’ll call the music 99 percent being able to earn a fair amount from streaming dollars. On YouTube, for example, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated in a 2017 report that the annual revenue for the music industry per user is less than $1. “User upload services, such as YouTube, are heavily used by music consumers and yet do not return fair value to those who are investing in and creating the music,” IFPI chief executive Frances Moore said in a statement.

So how does a below-the-megastar-radar artist or band survive the new paradigm? The Buzz Factor music marketing guru Bob Baker stresses in an email that artists looking to make it “need to accept that there is no one route to success.” Beyond the obvious – “writing great songs” – he suggests lots of touring and filling niche markets such as relaxing music for yoga. 

Ms. North stresses the importance of savvy social media skills, and she’s a big fan of house concerts. “Attendees become superfans, and they buy CDs and other merchandise,” she says. 

Meanwhile, Matt Scannell, lead singer of the band Vertical Horizon, says he has no time for statistics and numbers. “Yes, we can be smart and nimble, but if you spend your energy truly connecting with your fans instead of worrying about millions of streams by every flavor of the month, they will support you,” he says. “They’ll want you to keep doing this.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to How streaming is saving the music business
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2018/0703/How-streaming-is-saving-the-music-business
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe