PEAR ASSIGNMENT #1: Swift vs. Spotify
Spotify is an online service that allows consumers to stream music for free on their laptops, phones, etc. The premium service has a cost but allows users to stream offline. Name any artist and they will have their music on the website for the listening pleasure of their fans, except for a few standouts including one country/pop sensation. It was around this time last year when Taylor Swift decided to remove her music off the online streaming service. This caused a large debate of whether it was a good thing for her to do, or a selfish one. She wrote a letter to her fans talking about the situation and why she did it, she was thinking of the long term effect on the music industry.
The concept of the popstar
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In this case, Swift believes that “the value of an album is based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work” which relates to how the author of CPE states that value is subjective to the individual. To the artist, they will obviously believe that their music is more valuable than it would be to a consumer, so they believe that the price should be driven up. The result of Taylor Swift’s argument of value caused her to boycott Spotify, as would an animal rights activist would if a company was harming animals in the production of their product. She continues to say “music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for” which solidifies that she believes that companies like Spotify are undervaluing not only herself, but other artists. Her actions did cause a chain reaction with other artists like the Black Keys taking their music off the site.
The topic discussed in chapters six and seven are supply and demand- what are they and how can they be effected. This article can be related to the demand of Spotify, music downloads and CDs.
There are several factors that change the demand curve as mentioned in CPE. These
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With Taylor Swift leaving, the demand decreases because people who were on the site to listen to her music will not have a need for it anymore. A decrease in income could drive people to the site because they don’t have to pay to listen which increases demand of Spotify. But an increase in income could decrease demand because the consumer could buy the hardcopy of the CD or on iTunes so that they can have it when they do not have access to internet, which increases those two markets.
Since these products- Spotify, iTunes, and CDs- are all substitutes when the price of one goes down, the demand for the others decrease, or vice versa. For example if the price of CDs decreased, the demand for Spotify may decrease. In the case with Taylor Swift, since her music is not on Spotify, her fans need to turn to another source. Not only is the demand effected by the Spotify drama, but so is the supply.
Since her music isn’t available unless you purchase it, the supply of hard copy CDs will increase. This is because the supplier- Swift’s recording label- will have to take into account the amount of people who will buy the CD now that they can’t access it online. Since iTunes does not have a physical ‘supply’,
In the past, singers made money through CDs and cassettes. These forms of media have been replaced with digital copies of albums and songs. Even this method of accessing music has begun to fade away with the replacement of streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Soundcloud. Artists’ music has also been used in advertisements. This can negatively affect the artist’s career. Music artists shouldn’t have their songs in advertising.
The music industry has changed in more ways than we could imagine. At first we started with artists just selling singles, then it transformed over to people buying albums, and then on iTunes started to sell songs for just cents. In the year 2005, Pandora was launched on the Internet and later they created a mobile app. Most of the artist’s music can be found on YouTube. Free downloads have affected this industry as well.
Before the 1990’s, if people want to listen to music, they just visit a music store and pick up a CD and then put it into a stereo equipment. However, the development of MP3 file format gradually changed the way people listen to music. This format lets everyone download music easily and it can be converted to CD as well. But, there is still a problem: searching MP3 files on the internet is maddening and people seldom can find the music they want. Therefore, the birth of Napster solved this problem, creating a virtual music community in which music fans could use the Web as a “swap meet” for music files. More importantly, Napster is easy to use and it’s free, which expands the range of audience in age. Bandwidth also contributed to Napster’s success. The greater the bandwidth, the faster the file can be transferred. So, Napster really changed the way people listen to music, discover music and interact with music.
The Internet—as it did for almost everything—has radically changed the way people get music. The Internet has cut into the music industry's profits. It reduced the demand for CDs, increased the interest in singles and let people decide whether they want to pay for the new Prince album. This alone could be offset if all of the people pirating music would go to their favorite artists' shows. However, the hard economy has rapidly cut into people's ability to spend on luxury items and concerts rank right up there with sports in terms of practicality.
1. Money is both a necessary and useful instrument for justice in society because it establishes a proportional form of exchange, it acts as a medium to mediate exchange and enable supply and demand between people of different avocations thus promoting justice in society as well prompting injustice in society.
It’s probably not feasible to avoid streaming music services nowadays. Every smart phone on the market is able to operate numerous music streaming applications, ranging from radio-style streaming, on-demand streaming, and even cloud-streaming. Smart TVs come equipped with Spotify, Pandora, or Rdio. AT&T partners with Beats music to offer a unique on-demand music streaming service with playlists complied by DJs. It seams that with the advent of Wifi hotspots and high-speed mobile Internet services, music streaming is becoming more and more a part of mainstream life. Spotify has been in the spotlight within this particular segment of the streaming industry ever since its introduction to the United States in 2011. (Roose, n.d.)
The music industry is an ever-evolving revolutionary entertainment industry for the masses. Music provides entertainment to all different masses due to the variety of genres produced. Music is a very profitable and complex industry. Music has expanded to a worldwide industry for musical artist to express their art through the form of song to the masses. Music not only appeals to the ears but to every aspect of a person. Music allows for individuals to explore and let their imagination expand as they here a song. Throughout the years the industry has undergone dramatic changes. Whether it is genres, forms of how it is distributed, or even the impact the artist have had. The industry is diverse and ever changing as the years continue. In the past 20 years the industry has changed with help of the technological breakthroughs and adoptions.
Consumers rely on their smartphones and laptops to listen to music on-demand. Although there are many music streaming companies, Spotify was one of the first to let consumers access millions of artist without buying individuals songs or albums. With Spotify, consumers pay for a premium subscription that allows access to every artist, album, and song within their library of
The most significant down side to technology is the loss in revenue from album sales. Illegal downloading of music has become prevalent in today’s society, and many artists—major or independent—receive little to no profit from album sales. Many companies, such as Apple, have tried combating the issue with protected file formats, but a loophole has always been found to bypass the protection. Unsigned and independently signed artists hurt the most, as they pay almost everything out-of-pocket to produce their music. The only feasible response to the loss in revenue, artists have found, is to increase tour dates. In today’s age, it is not rare to find artists who tour more than eight months out of each year. Touring has become one of, if not the only, reliable source of income for many
When it comes to the music industry, an artist makes a song, the label sells the song and then the listener buys it? In the world today, the music industry is knowledgeable of digital downloads, music videos, file sharing, and now social media. Social media is the voice of an individual and captures joy, emotions or thoughts in pictures, tweets or status updates. It is a reachable space that is used to keep in touch and to reach out. Social media allows listeners to shares their favorite artists, post their favorite songs and really created a genuine connection with the artists. The music industry has changed because social media is a tool needed to connecting with the listeners. Social media is necessary to maintain a career in the music business.
"The mass production of free, high-quality re-recorded music became a serious threat to the music industry" ("Music Industry"). This mass production is costing artists and producers money that they would have made from people buying their music. Listeners have turned to streaming services as a cheaper alternative to purchasing to songs they love. Streaming services have increased the availability of music, which one may think is a good thing but is in fact a fulmination to the music industry because artists are not making as much money as they would have if songs were being purchased individually. People who worked in the music industry had showered praise on to streaming services, considering them a savior that would help the music industry and increase revenue, but they instead had an adverse effect on music sales and artist salary (O’Brien). Streaming services have led to protests from artists on many different levels due to the amount of payment that artists are receiving. "Prince, Neil Young and Ms. Swift have withdrawn their music from some streaming outlets, and various musicians have called for greater transparency in how the music industry operates (Sisario).” While the protests have been successful, it is only when famous high-level artists bring attention to the issues. This controversy is one of the negatives of streaming services because
From my, as a listeners point of view, Spotify is a great way of listening to music instantly – without downloading and having my computer’s memory loaded with thousands of mp3s also it can be easily accessible anywhere – on your computer, tablet, phone or even without internet. Also
The industry basically works by selling and buying; however, if the sales decrease there is a huge impact in the economic growth of the firms. There are many factors, which can affect the growth of the firm. The factors that affect the firm do not have a great impact in their growth; nevertheless, a factor that has recently surged is the music piracy, and it has become a negative externality. A negative externality “occurs when a product or decision costs the society more than its private cost” . Music piracy makes the music market loose billions of dollars in the US and even though it doesn’t impact the economy on a big much it has a small impact such as the increase of unemployment per year.
Spotify is one of the biggest players in music streaming industry. Since its public launch in 2008, Spotify has grown significantly having more than 6 million subscribers of its 24 million active users in 32 countries on 4 continents, as of October 2013. [1]
The Industry gets its revenue from selling this content whether it’s online or in stores, this funds new projects and allow for better products in the future. The public should be aware of this, downloading the content for free, and not buying it will decrease revenue for the companies stopping them from undertaking future projects.