Medium.com- the ugly truth about the music streaming industry

[Black]

https://medium.com/@Innerviews/the-finge...02f3cc4b5c

[pinkoos]

Interesting article, thanks for posting.

I agree - I think things will eventually circle back to a pay and own model at which time Steve Jobs will be proven right once again.

[Dennis S]

"You were puking up your guts
When you read the standard contract you just signed." - Van Morrison

[mrbigstuff]

I know plenty of musicians who make a (modest) living at playing and recording. very modest, I might add. but, they know this going in. one way to make a living at music is to keep playing shows, as musicians have had to do in all but the last half century or so. fewer private planes, I guess.

[pdq]

mrbigstuff wrote:
I know plenty of musicians who make a (modest) living at playing and recording. very modest, I might add. but, they know this going in. one way to make a living at music is to keep playing shows, as musicians have had to do in all but the last half century or so. fewer private planes, I guess.

Yeah- it's one of those funny economic shifts that come along. It used to be artists toured to sell albums. Now they make albums (well, songs, that are either downloaded or played over radio, satellite, streaming services) to draw folks to their tours.

[deckeda]

I think the story is skipping a few things. Small artists already don't earn a living from streaming, so if streaming disappeared tomorrow it wouldn't hurt them. Likewise, if big labels get an investor payout, that too doesn't hurt small labels.

Streaming remains as FM radio does, exposure. Meaningful income comes elsewhere, as it always has.

[Black]

deckeda wrote:
I think the story is skipping a few things. Small artists already don't earn a living from streaming, so if streaming disappeared tomorrow it wouldn't hurt them.

I thought the main point of the article had more to do with the impending collapse of the streaming model due to economic unsustainability, but it's been a few hours since I read it.

[hal]

what... we have the READ the links now? Can't we just read the title and assume we know what the article is about like always?

[sekker]

deckeda wrote:
I think the story is skipping a few things. Small artists already don't earn a living from streaming, so if streaming disappeared tomorrow it wouldn't hurt them. Likewise, if big labels get an investor payout, that too doesn't hurt small labels.

Streaming remains as FM radio does, exposure. Meaningful income comes elsewhere, as it always has.

Exactly.

I don't care if the streaming business goes bust - it shouldn't be making anyone any $$.

[gabester]

I've never understood the point of streaming. We have devices that can hold hours days WEEKS of music, and instead people choose to suck up bandwidth streaming music onto their device like it's a transistor radio? Sure, streaming's better than radio because the listener has some more control and choices... but I never understood using it vs. listening to excerpts of tracks on iTunes or Amazon and buying them. And I don't know how artists really made money from radio playback, but it would seem like it should work roughly the same way.