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Spotify. Good thing or bad thing? Discuss for $5!

Posted by Rich in Music

Have Spotify, and/or music streaming services in general, been a good or a bad thing overall for music?

It's a complicated question with many facets. What impact has streaming had on the people involved in bringing music to your ears - the platform holders, the record labels, and of course the artists themselves? What impact has it had on music fans like us - music is more accessible than ever, but how has that affected our appreciation of it, and the ways we listen to it? And perhaps most importantly, is the music itself any better?

Feel free to tackle one, several, or all of these facets in a written or video answer. As you can see this one's a bit of a thinker, so we're looking for lengthy, effortful answers of at least 100 words. Eight of the best such answers get $5 apiece.

already paid

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This reward closed to entries at 2:01pm on May 1, 2024 but you can still reply, react, and join the conversation below! If you’d like to enter other rewards which are still open, click here.

Created at 9:12am, 19th April, 2024. Page last updated at 2:44pm, 16th May, 2024.
Deadline at 11:00pm, 30th April, 2024.

AlexSkingzy 4/30/2024, 3:53:08 PM

For personal use, Spotify has completely changed the way I listen to music, and honestly in a lot of ways changed the way I’ve grown up! When I was a young’un, getting a spotify subscription allowed me to explore so many different types of music without having to buy in to albums I ‘might not like’, and allowed for so much expression. I really grew into US hip-hop, especially alternative sounds like Childish Gambino and Aminé, who I may have never give a try without the subscription, and now are huge parts of my identity!

Problems come though when you start thinking about the creative side of the music… I think for many, allowing their music to be heard on the platform can give smaller artists exposure and room to reach new audiences, but for the hefty cuts they take, I don’t know if it’s worth it for the bigger artists! I know many of them make most of their profits through shows and events, but I do understand the frustration they must feel with streaming services too.

NicoleStaff4/30/2024, 4:03:56 PM

AlexSkingzy

Aminé is so good! I suspect I'm with you that I also wouldn't have discovered them if it wasn't for Spotify.

CelestialFlea 4/30/2024, 3:53:04 PM

I think Spotify has it's pros and cons. For the most part Spotify is great for music fans, as it exposes them to bands and artists they might not otherwise have found out about whilst they're just browsing through new albums or releases on Spotify, and the subscription model keeps costs for consumers down.

I do have to wonder if it's as fair as it could be to artists though. Particularly lesser known ones that might not get as many eyes on them. From what I understand artists are paid royalties per x number of streams. And that amount is pretty miniscule, compared to what they could be making via selling albums. Though producing distributing physical copies is expensive, so by distributing via Spotify they save a lot of cost. And they can make a lot of extra money from YouTube revenue.

So as I said, there are pros and cons for both consumers and artists to consider. But for the most part I think it's a good thing to expose people to new music that wouldn't necessarily make it to mainstream. Because there's far too much of the same, tired old sounds coming from mainstream 'artists' who copy and remix eachother or don't really offer anything new. Take RnB & rap music as an example it all sounds very similar.

Spotify exposes people to new and innovative artists who might not otherwise have got attention. Variety is always good isn't it? Then again, Spotify isn't the only digital distribution source..competition is healthy too!

Kane Carnifex 4/29/2024, 12:22:49 PM

My subscription of Spotify runned out and i was in the mood to give Tidal a try.

Ah, how do I import all my playlists? No worries, some websites out there already have set up a business. If I remember correctly, the free service is around 500 Songs.

Here I am on Tidal, the HIFI Platform for Music.

I ran the songs on both and for me there is no difference… I am already in the 90-95% range of HIFI. So I step back from this check and give it later the day another try. But nothing changed. All the work to import the music from A to B….

The biggest thing for me is the price. Currently the western payment plans are just too expensive… I don´t own the Music, all the money I have paid is just service. But my House will never hold a Vinyl… it's all just digital dust. All the digital services are offered worldwide and for whatever reason in other countries it costs 5% of what we are forced to pay here.

I am the guy who buys the merch at the concert, to support the Band. Also I like Swag. But Spotify is not giving me swag at all. Neither does Tidal.

On the other hand I don't want to miss this digital service, as it makes listening to music super easy.

I wish there would be a monthly report from Spotify on how much the artist got… How much did the pump into the infrastructure and what are the costs of the employees? But maybe they don´t want to have “normal” customer look into this data.

On the other side as an Artist, is this not free promo on a major platform? Like how should I know a small Band from Africa if not suggested by an algorithm?

And now they get some money because some random German dude is listening to them nonstop?!

IMHO: It's a good thing for now but more work will be done by AI and Robots. With all the freetime we can more and more express ourselves as artists. And if there is no need to work for life… the payment of spotify gets obsolete. Just cover the service and artists express their work for free. Yes, this utopia because for a lot of people work is their meaning of life.

Imagine you don´t want to get paid for your art because your needs go in that direction and are fully covered to all your needs.

PRO Spotify, Pro Streaming.

Also talking about top notch problems without getting to the root cause is a funny time wasting activity. I approved that :P

Makster 4/21/2024, 5:15:59 PM

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6B-2L-sL_v/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

0ffworld 4/19/2024, 3:38:36 PM

I have many thoughts on this matter, so this will be a long one. If you're willing to read it and consider it for the bounty, I'd be very grateful. But this will be a wall of text for which I apologize in advance. In any case, this gives me a chance to put some of my thoughts on Spotify into words. Great bounty idea!

The money

I listen to a good mix of music superstars and underground/indie artists. Especially the smaller artists who have been around long enough to experience the transition from physical media to a mix of physical and digital will almost all tell you that music streaming has made things more problematic and difficult to be a music artist.

Streamed music is so easy to access, that less people bother to actually get a physical CD of an album they like. I see countless artists who say that streams pay so little, that their main focus is trying to sell merchandise or touring in order to sell merch which actually pays the bills. Some of them have Patreon accounts but that means they have to put in even more work to make a monthly subscription attractive.

The money situation has become so bad, that a new bill has been introduced not too long ago - the Living Wage for Musicians Act. Passing this bill would mean artists would receive 1 Cent per stream, which would essentially at least double the money they receive for putting out the music you and I enjoy. I, personally, would like this to go through, but you can bet that companies who run streaming platforms will use it as an excuse to raise their prices again. Even though Spotify has, as of this month, demonetized every track on Spotify that does not reach 1,000 plays within a year. This impacts 86% of tracks on the platform!! Let that sink in for a moment.

To remedy this, I try to buy merch occasionally, but being in the EU and being someone who very often listens to US artists, shipping merchandise is something I have to very carefully consider. At least it's not so bad for CDs - though weirdly enough, not all of them can be shipped from America to the EU.

The app

One day, I looked up which streaming service pays artists the most. To my surprise, at the time it was Tidal - maybe it still is. So I went and tried a few different music streaming apps, to see if I can get away from Spotify. Unfortunately, Spotify simply has the best app. There is no question. No other app comes close - some of them are even missing basic features like crossfade, which makes it so your music fades in and out when you hit pause/play and doesn't assault your ears with 100% of the volume your last song was at. Two weeks into my Tidal test run, Tidal didn't even have personalized mixes ready for me. I've given a few others a try as well and I'm not someone who bashes things if my alternative is to just move on, but every other music streaming app is trash. Actually trash, I hate to say it. This is why it'll be impossible for me to move away from Spotify.

My only real problem with Spotify is licensing. Not all songs I want to listen to are available on Spotify. When I want to listen to these specific songs, I have to play my local files that I ripped from my CDs to my PC or play via YouTube Music (which doesn't have an app). This I can only do when I'm at home, of course, so that's immediately less convenient for me.

The mood

I have seen a few comments regarding listening habits, rituals, and general appreciation of music and music artists that I strongly disagree with. These are things that only affect YOU. You can decide how you listen. You can decide to buy CDs and put them up for display even though you're paying for music streams. You can decide not to care what people think of your music tastes. This has nothing to do with Spotify, Amazon Music, or any other services. The way you listened to CDs back in the day can still be the same way you listen to music streams today. If you put yourself in the right mood, it doesn't matter if the music comes from a CD player, a Walkman, or the Spotify app on your phone.

The bottom line

The bottom line is, I like Spotify. But the artists I listen to probably hate that they have to deal with it. So support your artists, buy CDs, buy vinyls, buy merchandise, check out Bandcamp Fridays!! If you think a few plays on Spotify will pay their rent, they might not be making music for much longer. Unless you help them out a bit.

0ffworld 4/20/2024, 3:16:25 PM

0ffworld

There was another thing I remembered but forgot to talk about. It's only in the planning stage, as far as I know, so it could turn out to be terrible.

AI playlists. I don't even know exactly what it means but if they give users the AI tool and don't just use it to analyze users' listening habits to create personalized mixes, it would be a bit of a game changer.

Just imagine being able to input "Spotify, create a playlist of Artist A but exclude live recordings." or something like that. It would make playlist creation super easy. Time will tell, I guess.

RichStaff5/1/2024, 2:03:19 PM

0ffworld

This was a great answer - thorough, thoughtful, and tackled a tricky question from many angles. Don't worry about writing lengthy replies, we love them here!

BeyondBelief 4/19/2024, 3:05:43 PM

I think Spotify is great and one of the better music services out there. Spotify has always been my go to platform for on the go and listening to in my spare time. Tonnes of playlists depending on what you're looking for, covers, specific intruments, bands, upcoming artists. My personal favourite and one I always look forward to each week is Spotify Weekly where we're able to find out new songs and artists. I can struggle sometimes to find new artists and new tracks and this gives me a great selection each week based on what I like to listen to. My other favourite feature is collaborative playlists. I think it's super fun that you're able to invite your friends into a playlist together and share what you've been listening to recently!

Laser-Bicep 4/19/2024, 3:04:28 PM

Absolutely a bad thing.

Artists are paid a pittance. I read that spotify are continuing to shut down people with low streams from monetising. The cost is £10.99 for a personal account.

On a personal note in our family we have a long time student. Spotify cut of the student support after 4 years even if you are a still a student , so we lost a £4.99 student subscription.

If amazon music had more selection and cost les we would make the switch.

on a side note we try to buy vinyl and digital music when we can

mar1gold 4/19/2024, 12:43:39 PM

This is a really multifaceted question!

First, if we look at what spotify does for consumers of music, I believe it is a net positive. With basically every song/artist available on there I have been able to find so many artists I probably would have never found if I didn't have it. I find their playlist features especially helpful in doing this.

However, we've lost the ritual of sitting down and listening to an album start to finish, or the excitement of having an actual album in your hands that you're going to go home and listen to. Also, spotify's social features do not live up to people coming to your house and judging your music taste based on the CDs/records you have around.

But then second, if we look at what spotify does for musicians, it is strongly a net negative. The fact that even large artists complain about the lack of money they are getting from spotify is concerning because what about the little guys! Despite anybody being able to upload their music on spotify, creating revenue and an audience seems harder. That's perhaps why so many up-coming artists are industry plants or nepo babies now (where are the Paul McCartneys? The Axl Roses?). Artists now have to rely on concerts and merch to create revenue and it's not really like they can 'opt out' of spotify as it seems to have such a chokehold on how people listen to music.

FirestormGamingTeam 4/19/2024, 9:50:42 AM

Spotify is much like Amazon Music imo, that we have issues with paywall content, premium services, and constant ads when listening to music.

But do these services help the music industry or the artists themselves, that's a brain teaser for sure. The main issue with a lot of these services is there are no real "charts" like we had back in the day, maybe I'm old but the CDs we had of the monthly "top 40", I think helped the music industry a lot.

Nowadays, we have basically whatever YouTube offers with music is what's being seen, TikTok sounds tend to push people towards music with their "trending" sounds. These sounds then tend to end up on games as dances such as Fortnite etc

But does Spotify actually help the industry? No, not at all, same as Amazon music, it's just a service we use for free to play music we remember when out and about, what we need, is a service that focuses solely on new music coming out.

If music artist want to reach people then the actual music itself needs to change, people are becoming less and less enthusiastic about certain types of music or music that promotes hate or is disrespectful to women, talking about drugs etc.

So to wrap this up, if music services such as Spotify and Amazon Music want to really, help the industry, then they need to paywalling certain things and driving people off the apps with constant ads etc.

Asim 4/21/2024, 7:03:20 PM

I would say Good & a Bad thing

I am absolutely of the unpopoular opinion here but I do not listen to music but I use spotify. I have stopped listening to music due to religious reasons and I feel like one of the bad things about spotify is that it can be designed to be quite addicting with the tailored recommendations of music you can discover so much more you never would have discovered and ultimately spend a lot more time on the app than you intended too

However the good thing about spotify for me is that it is just not about music. There are so many incredible podcasts out there (I tend to listen to a lot of wrestling podcasts and religious podcasts). The ability to stream them anywhere with an internet connect and just how accessible spotify is with other forms of technology is incredible, I.E spotify on phones, laptops, TV's & Cars. It's great!

Spotify has opened up an audiobooks section which is great too as it turns drives into good experiences to learn things from podcasts and listen to audiobooks which I prefer compared to listening to music

NeoKazuho 4/22/2024, 9:58:48 AM

Spotify, the popular music streaming platform, has transformed the way we listen to and discover music. By offering a vast library of songs, albums, and podcasts at our fingertips, Spotify has made music more accessible than ever before. Users can explore different genres, discover new artists, and create personalized playlists. Features like "Discover Weekly" and "Release Radar" provide tailored recommendations, enhancing the user experience and encouraging musical exploration.

For artists, Spotify offers a unique platform for exposure. Independent musicians can reach a global audience without major label support, leading to new opportunities for recognition and collaboration. The social sharing features also foster a sense of community among users, allowing them to share their favorite tracks and playlists with friends.

However, Spotify has its downsides. The platform's payment structure has been criticized for its low royalty rates, which makes it difficult for artists to earn a significant income from streaming alone. This concern ties into the broader issue of music devaluation, where the perception of music as a nearly free commodity can impact artists' revenue streams.

Another issue is Spotify's reliance on algorithms to recommend music. While this can be a powerful tool for discovery, it can also create echo chambers, limiting musical diversity. Additionally, concerns about data privacy arise as Spotify collects user data to personalize the listening experience.

So to conclude everything, Spotify has brought immense convenience and accessibility to music lovers, changing the way we consume and discover music. However, it also raises important questions about artist compensation, music valuation, and the impact of algorithms on musical trends. As the music industry continues to evolve in the streaming era, addressing these challenges will be crucial for fostering a fair and vibrant musical landscape.

Sturmer 4/22/2024, 9:26:27 PM

NeoKazuho

what kind of threads you identified in regards user data collection for personalized playlists? Now I'm worried!

NeoKazuho 4/23/2024, 12:54:32 AM

Sturmer

AI has become increasingly intelligent, with the ability to analyze and understand the data entered into search fields. It can use this information to suggest content or products that align with your preferences, learning from your previous searches to offer more accurate and relevant recommendations. This personalized approach helps AI better meet your needs, providing a more tailored and efficient user experience.

Sturmer 4/23/2024, 5:43:03 AM

NeoKazuho

Could you explain why you view this as negative? How is it related to data collection?

NeoKazuho 4/23/2024, 7:33:53 AM

Sturmer

some platform might misuse the feature for example in your social media, you search on branded shoe, this will linked to other platform in your phone, and when you open one of the e-commerce apps, the product might just appear on your main page because of this feature

Sturmer 4/23/2024, 9:19:16 AM

NeoKazuho

So you found that Spotify do that?

NeoKazuho 4/23/2024, 9:40:23 AM

Sturmer

Normally to my Youtube.. But this is just my though tho.. just sharing it

Sturmer 4/24/2024, 4:40:20 PM

While I don’t use Spotify, I occasionally listen to music on YouTube Music which came as a bonus from YT Premium. However, my primary choice for music streaming is SoundCloud, which perfectly caters to my taste for obscure music. SoundCloud is a fantastic platform; it's free and teeming with independent artists who share their original works, remixes, covers of popular songs, and tributes.

I view SoundCloud much like Wikipedia—both are community-driven and foster collaboration among users eager to share their art and passion. Many musicians on SoundCloud also have profiles on Spotify and Patreon, where fans can support them financially. Additionally, the platform offers a wealth of copyright-free music, ideal for content creators looking for soundtracks for videos or podcasts.

https://soundcloud.com/jackylafrite/le-spectre-dragons-dogma-2-tribute

Shovel 4/30/2024, 4:10:47 PM

I actually love Spotify. The world has changed soo soo much, I remember a time where it was all about CDs and cassettes. Then came the Walkman and MP3 player but still you needed to download music. Then the iPod came out with iTunes where you had to purchase music (side note. Does anyone remember that time U2 gave everyone a free album??). Now we are in the age of streaming.

Streaming services like Spotify have really shaken things up, haven’t they? It’s pretty remarkable how we can now access such a vast library of music with just a few clicks. And I see what you mean about artists being able to connect more directly with their fans – it’s definitely changed the game. But yeah, the issue of fair compensation for artists is a real concern. They put so much into their craft and deserve to earn a decent living from it. Hopefully, the industry can work towards a more equitable solution moving forward.

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