Spotify Has Become A Monopoly
Unless you have a Get Out of Jail Free card, Chance is Making a Living from your Music is Unlikely
It’s probably time we have that conversation. The music industry is nothing like it used to be. The money isn’t there for artists anymore.
Perhaps there wasn’t enough foresight for the music industry to heavily unionize decades ago but it now seems entirely too late. While there is still Bandcamp and touring, those are virtually the only options for artists who want to make a living from music. Physical copies have decreased in sales almost yearly the past two decades but was up this year due to Bandcamp.
A recent article in New York Magazine takes a look at artist anger over Spotify’s control of means of production. Streaming services accounted for 84% of recorded music revenues this year. Physical media took up 11%, with digital sales at 3%. Meanwhile artists only make around $0.004 per stream. While Spotify has a market share of around 30% in streaming, it is without a doubt they led the charge for streaming to take over the industry, and only continue to gain in revenue. Spotify calls the shots now and it’s spooky.
The best suggestion for artists in the past year would be to utilize Bandcamp, but now Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr, and has laid off 50% of its staff. While artists attempt to combat conditions, things seem up in the air for one of the few equitable tools remaining.
Stay tuned for upcoming content from Bulletproof Soul. For more from the Bulletproof Soul gang, stream Nyyjerya, Lofty305, DJ Sabrina, Angela Davis, Amouranth, Alek Oni, Elektrip, TWENTYN9NE, JACOB SONGS, SLWJMZ, Ali Wisdom, Kengeta, and Austin.