Photo: Daniel Ek, Founder of Spotify | By John Herrman, New York Intelligencer | This week, the indie music platform Bandcamp laid off roughly half its staff after its second change of ownership in as many years. The site’s new owner, music-licensing service Songtradr, has promised to “keep all the existing Bandcamp services that fans and artists love,” but artists themselves sense a turning point. “God this is frustrating,” wrote John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. “Bandcamp was an unalloyed good in the music business.” The platform, said Kimya Dawson of the Moldy Peaches, “was the only place I felt safe and supported as an artist.” Bandcamp, through which musicians have sold $193 million in downloads and physical media in the last year, was, for a certain type of artist, a refuge from the brutal economics and promotional machinery of streaming. As jazz musician and critic Ethan Iverson put it: “The path narrows.”
Meanwhile, Spotify has its own news for musicians worried about making a living: a new “Merch Hub,” where users are recommended products based on what they’ve streamed, as well as new profile pages through which artists can sell live tickets and promote merchandise. Musicians can also direct benevolent listeners to CashApp or crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe. These are, in Spotify’s words, ways to accomplish its “mission” of “enabling artists to live off their art.” In context, artists might read the offer another way:
“Hey, we’re the only game in town. Might as well play.”
Streaming music won, at least in the sense that everything else lost. In 2022, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, streaming services accounted for 84 percent of recorded music revenues, with physical media accounting for 11 percent and digital downloads adding up to 3 percent (and falling). For most listeners, the calculation is simple enough. Streaming is cheaper than buying music. It’s easier and at least nominally more ethical than outright piracy. It’s also operationally embedded in the culture: If you want to share a song, album, or playlist with friends or an audience, you’ll probably default to Spotify, the largest streaming service by far.
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https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/spotify-is-eating-the-entire-music-business.html
Photo: Daniel Ek, Founder of Spotify
Spotify is Eating the Entire Music Business
