Art League | Page 24

Streaming

By Joe Divico

Music has evolved since the early 2000s. We have seen the decline of revenue of physical ablums in stores. With major streaming platforms including spotify, soundcloud, and apple music, we can now have access to any song we enjoy. Steve cooper, Warner Music chief Executive, said that streaming revenue is double that of physical sales, and triple that of downloads. With access to so much free music , some artists have said it devalues the music itself. Taylor swift actually took her music off Spotify and Apple around July 2014 because she was furious about artists not making any royalities. We do see subscription based services being very lucrative. Digital revenue for audio was at 6.5 billion dollars in 2017 and this was comprised of approximately millions of people paying for a music based subscription service.( Ed Christman, Music Streaming Revenue increased 53 percent in 2017)

Where is everyones attention now that we have access to a plethora of music apps . I think that free streaming services will allow artists exposure for growing their brand on a certain level. SoundCloud is a popular app that allows people to share their music without having a record label backing them. For example, one of my favorite artists is Mike Stud or Mike Seander. He is a former college duke baseball player. In his sophmore year, he had surgery for a career ending injury. He started rapping and has been pushing his music for free, until he releases an album. This platform of giving music which has built his career up where it is more then enough income for living. It will be interesting the direction music takes in our future.

Christman, Ed. “Music Streaming Revenue Increased 53 Percent in 2017, Digital Services Report.” Billboard, Billboard, www.billboard.com/articles/business/8096452/digital-revenue-streaming-music-2017-dima-midia-report.

Tiffany, Kaitlyn. “A History of Taylor Swift's Odd, Conflicting Stances on Streaming Services.” The Verge, The Verge, 9 June 2017, www.theverge.com/2017/6/9/15767986/taylor-swift-apple-music-spotify-statements-timeline.