The Great Streaming Debate

The Pros and Cons of the Streaming Platform

We would all be lying if we didn't appreciate the convenience that streaming platforms offer us. Whether it be Netflix, Spotify, or one of the many different services that offer Video & Audio streaming directly to our device of choice.

In this article, I will be attempting to generate a debate over the pros and cons of these services, specifically the music streaming services.

I am a musician myself, so I am heavily invested in these platforms, as well as alternatives that can offer more to the artist directly.

The Cons

I’d like to begin with the cons. Mainly because “anti-streaming” is arguably the most popular opinion amongst the music community, despite most anti-streamers using these services on a daily basis.

The arguments are absolutely justified. The income generated per stream is quite shocking and it can really damage your motivation as an artist. Here is a breakdown of the most popular streaming platforms and how much they pay per stream:

Tidal Music — $0.01284

Apple Music — $0.008

Amazon Music — $0.00402

Spotify — $0.00318

YouTube Music — $0.002

Pandora — $0.00133

Deezer — $0.0011

While these numbers are quite surprising, the disparity between the lowest and highest is equally shocking. Tidal offers the best rate while Deezer has the worst. In order to make $1 you will need a total of 78 streams with Tidal. To make that same $1 with Deezer, you need 909 streams… That is 10 times as many streams for the same dollar.

If you are a musician and release your music across these platforms, then i wont need to tell you how hard it is for your average musician to hit 1000 streams on even the most popular platform (Spotify).

You still need 314 streams to hit $1 on Spotify, no where near as good as Tidal but still x3 less than what is required with Deezer.

One of the other problems that are faced is the abundance of platforms for consumers to use. Spreading our streams thinner and thinner, making it even harder to keep the consistency. Most artists opt to market their music based around Spotify & Apple Music due to its user base. I personally don’t even know anyone who uses Tidal!

Alternatives

There are alternatives to this which greatly benefit the artist, and that comes in the form of Bandcamp. If you are not familiar with this platform, it is practically a combined online Record Store & streaming platform in one. The difference here is you need to purchase music, with Bandcamp only taking 10% from all sales. You can sell your Merchandise on there and also sell physical copies of your records alongside the digital versions.

They also introduced “Bandcamp Fridays” during the pandemic which allowed artists to take home 100% of earnings from sales which was greatly received and a great success.

One of the problems here is Bandcamp has a significantly smaller user base compared to the top streaming platforms, so despite being able to take home such a large percentage of direct sales, the amount of direct sales is very low and inconsistent.

Summary of the Cons

Overall the argument for anti-streamers is completely justified when looking at those shocking rates above. In order for an artist to make minimum wage, they would need approximately 287,568 Monthly streams. A lot of popular bands that I regularly listen to barely have this many monthly listeners.

while it is very demoralizing to see these figures, but I would argue that artists haven't been earning most of their income from sales/streams for a very long time. A strong income from streaming platforms alone is owned by a very small percentage of artists who are already very established acts. Now with the cons section out the way, I'd like to raise some “pro” points that a lot of people often overlook.

Pros

The most obvious point for the “Pro” corner has to be the convenience. Gone are the days of bring a bunch of CDs with you to spin on your portable Walkman. At the time it was great! music on the go with just this small device and a stack of CDs to lug around? Amazing! I can’t believe we were using TAPES all these years!

Looking back now, it is hard to imagine having to bring dedicated devices and physical media around with us. Most of us would probably just not bother in this day and age! Being able to stream (almost) what ever you want, where ever you want is amazing. Being able to show your friend that song you’ve had on repeat with the click of a button is amazing. Being able directly send links through your socials for everyone to see what you are currently listening to is amazing.

The benefits that the convenience brings cannot be underestimated. This is clearly a very popular opinion overall but I think there is a bigger point that most people don’t consider…

How often do people illegally pirate music these days?…

In the early 2000s, Piracy was a huge problem to the Music Industry. LimeWire, PirateBay…There was a never ending list of options for illegally downloading music. It was everywhere & it felt like almost everyone was doing it. Record sales took a huge hit and things started to look really dire.

But then Spotify came along.

Once Spotify came along, almost everyone I knew who used to download music had suddenly stopped.

Once more streaming platforms started to pop up and the library of available music to stream continued to grow, illegally download music seemed to stop in its tracks entirely!

Now as great as that is, i have heard people argue that streaming is hardly that much better than illegally downloading. While i understand what is trying to be said there, the difference is “illegal” and “legal”. Way more people will jump on board if its a “legal” option.

Another point I would like to raise is overall exposure. I'd say 50% of bands that I listen to these days were all discoveries I had made through Spotify. 45% of those bands I have gone to see live, bought a Vinyl record from them, bought a T-shirt etc.

Now if I had never heard of this band through Spotify, I would never purchased any of those things from them. People are more likely to check a band out if they don’t have the risk of wasting their money on a CD they don’t like.

Summary of the Pros

A quick summary for the “Pro” corner:

• Discoverability
• Stomping out Illegal music downloading
• Convenience

Overall Summary

My current stance is that streaming platforms are not inherently bad. The problem is clearly the amount the artist can earn per stream. It is the classic tale of 1% taking the largest cut and the remaining 99% are left to distribute what is left between them.

This has always been something I have wanted to discuss and write about. I would love to hear some of your views on this in the comments, whether you have additional opinions for either the “Pro” or “Con” side.

If you enjoyed this article please follow & clap, links to music can be found below (Including Bandcamp if you fancied a direct purchase!)

Thank you all, I look forward to hearing some opinions!