How Streaming Saved The Music Industry

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Arghya Das
Jun 06, 2019   •  83 views

How Streaming Saved The Music Industry

As the internet was becoming a popular medium for consumption of media, the music industry was going into the pits. Unlike movies, music track files were relatively much smaller in size and thus easier to download. The internet hadn’t developed so much during that time and most people operated it at really low speeds and had access to limited Gbs of the web. As internet was developing, people discovered that tracks were possible to be downloaded for free of cost and at once took to it. Sales of vinyl records and music CDs started to drop at quick rates. The digital revolution proved to be a nightmare for the music industry.

Piracy of music became the trend. Napster was the first website or online portal that promoted the free access of music to people. And people of course gravitated. Many musicians, producers and record labels came together to protest the piracy of music. Legendary heavy metal band, Metallica, even filed a lawsuit against Napster. Musical artists encouraged their fans to not to promote piracy. But little did they knew, these beloved ‘loyal’ fans were the people who were involved with illegal music downloads. People were short on money and they wanted to listen to music. Earlier, people were required to save up for months in case they wanted to purchase an album. And it wasn’t always possible to purchase all the album one fancies. But the internet brought music lovers’ dreams to life.

As the internet kept developing, another colossal hurdle dropped on the music industry. It was called YouTube. As user base of YouTube increased, the service kept getting richer with content. record labels were able to make their own channels where they would post their original music with advertisements and in turn make money from their ‘sales’. This meant royalty could find its way into the artists’ pockets once again. But it did not happen. Internet happens to be the most anarchic place in the world. If record labels could post music, so can other people. YouTube users posted the same music. Many of them didn’t even included advertisements. People gravitated towards the large content base of YouTube and preferred tracks without ads. This was way scarier for the industry than illegal downloads. People weren’t downloading anymore. People with access to the internet were capable to listen to whichever track there want, whenever they want it. Musicians had to rely mostly n their earnings from live performances.

After some time, came along the streaming services. These provided added benefits to music experience. Unlike YouTube, the services had curated albums, radios and playlists. This is the one thing that YouTube and illegal downloading portals could not offer. These services revolutionized how an individual can experience music. From now on, you didn’t need to shuffle between your petty little downloaded collection. With stable internet connection, you had access to the entire music industry and, in a manner, which was even legal. And the ace of spade was that content was provided according to the likes and dislikes of the person, in other words, a custom listening experience unique to every individual. To put their music on these platforms, record labels had to fix a deal with the service and the service was available to the people at a cost. Thus, revenues started to pour in once the labels manages to put their music on these platforms. People were ready to pay a minimal amount for these benefits.

Today we have several music streaming services with market leaders like Apple Music and Spotify. Most artists and labels find this to be a positive revolution, unlike the digital revolution, and endorse this new method of experience. YouTube has also started similar service after waiting for a rather long time only to charge a heftier price. But anyway, once again the royalties have found their way into the artist’s pocket’s and everyone seems to be happy, for now at least.

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