I realise I am just about to split any audience I have in two here but here goes: I hate music streaming services.
I understand not everyone has the cash to buy all the music they want, but some people never actually buy the music they love from the artists they adore, and is that really right?
I believe Spotify costs about ten pounds a month for a premium license, which happens to be the price of a new album. Now, do you really think all that cash goes to artists? No. Spotify have people to pay in their offices, PR and marketing, other overheads, then they have to pay the most played artists (Mark Ronson, Ed Sheeran etc.) most because they get most plays. You know what FVK get for their Spotify plays? Nothing. Absolutely zilch, zero pounds and zero pence. Not a dime.
I understand this works out quite well for the huge artists and help them gain dominance on yet another platform, but is this what we really want to do? To push all new non-pop artists out of the market? It appears so.
For the first time in ages, a rock record is tipped to top the charts this weekend (BMTH’s That’s The Spirit) and although they have promoted it on Spotify and Apple Music, they’ve put a very strong emphasis on pre-orders because record and merch sales are how artists make cash still, despite having huge volumes of streaming interest. I understand why.
I’m not going to lie and say all people should buy CDs, because pop music has developed immensely with the use of streaming as new artists can get heard and get played in clubs and climb charts, but with other genres it can be very, very tough to take in any reward for so much hard work, and I resent that.
I guess my main message here is to think. Put yourself in the shoes of the artist; if you’d be happy making music and getting paid just enough to get by, would you be happy? Their dream job is not economically viable and so many have to do it part time to earn enough to eat and pay bills. If you can, please, please, support the industry by buying records from online stores or even better HMV and independent stores to keep bands in business and stores in sales!
rockestmedia 