CE has put out several playlists in the past from new artists, favorite bands, and collections to go with our gaming soundtracks from music that blends with the gameplay. After all, who wouldn’t want free access to listen to anybody and everybody? And the exposure is like no other time for local bands to get heard.
There are pros to Spotify for artists but the fact that each listen gives artists a fraction of a penny of their music streamed really puts pretty much most bands on there at a severe disadvantage. Tracks and albums with low play totals wont be able to even hear the music desired, and instead, you’ll hear designated pop tracks before the right music even gets a chance. Unless Spotify features the band on a designated playlist, the average listener may not hear that band at all.
To put in perspective, even if artists got a “raise” of a penny a stream, a generous total of 1000 streams a month gives the band only 10 bucks. (Like that impressive math?) But they’re not even getting that.
So you know that one band that just gets you and hits every bar to your specific and unique sounds that you’ve been waiting to hear? They never made it off the ground because streaming services like Spotify have found a way to manipulate the industry to make it easier than downloading legally or illegally. Their EP was ok and the band sounded promising but it was their full length album that would have blown everyone away that nobody got to hear because Spotify takes all the ad revenue while the lifeblood and the actual purpose of this service, the artists, get nothing.
Maybe this means you missed a band’s short-lived career by the time you heard them on your “discover weekly” playlist or we only got one album to slowly feed of off by streaming it until we found something new from someone else all the while the return for artists is like giving them the loose pennies you found in your car.
All this access gives the music streamer an insatiable need for more, for something new, and more quick find searches to where we are never satisfied anymore while we can quickly dismiss music we don’t like. Are we even enjoying and listening to music right anymore?
So no ones saying you have to stop using music streaming apps but if you have a smaller lesser known band you really really like..go see them perform or get their stuff from their website. Because they might not actually be able to afford to perform as close to you, put out more stuff as soon as you hoped or even be able to keep making music at all if everyone is just relying on companies like Spotify, and that’s artists included. Overall, music will get by and it has in the past but it’s up to the fans on how they plan on supporting it.
Do you agree/disagree or know better options? Did you at least enjoy the pennie porn? Discuss here or @custodiexitus on Twitter. We’d love to hear from you.
-M.
Custodi Exitus 