Technology's Negative Effects On The Music Industry

Rileigh Dowling
Mrs. Gulyansky & Mrs. Brienza
English 9
6 January 2016
The Effect of Streaming Services on the Music Industry
The music industry impacts the lives of people from around the world. With the implementation of technology, the influence of the music industry has spread to affect anyone with access to technology. Streaming services have contributed to the increased popularity of music. While there are positive effects to being able to stream music and have multiple ways of listening to it, the music industry suffers from the lack of revenue and illegal activity associated with technology. Technology has had both positive and negative effects on the music industry by affecting how people access music and how music is produced

and broadcast through streaming services.
Streaming services peaked about 15 years ago with the start of Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, and other similar platforms (Sisario). A streaming service is an on demand online entertainment source for music, TV shows, movies and other streaming media. Spotify, one of the most popular streaming services used today, began in 2008 and now has over 75 million users. Pandora, a similar service, began in 2005 but had its peak in 2013, while Google Play began in 2011 and now contains over 30 million songs streamed by listeners in 63 countries. One thing that all of these services have in common is that they want to benefit listeners and allow access to music to be as convenient as possible. "The shift to music streaming, from the consumer point of view, makes sense. For $10 a month, you can access unlimited music on your mobile device, rather than paying by the download. Given the average cost of an album on iTunes, it makes discovering music a lot easier for consumers” (O’Brien). Streaming services are located right at people’s fingertips, and financially, it makes more sense for listeners to subscribe to streaming services and pay a relatively low amount of money each month instead of spending considerably more on albums. Listeners can be exposed to more music and expand their interests, which can subsequently affect artists through concert revenue and other services. "Music sharing websites, such as Napster, were developed to help people find and download digital music for free. Consumers could upload songs on the Internet and share them at no cost with millions of other people" (“Music Industry”). The point of streaming services is to allow people to have more access to music that they may not listen to otherwise. Listeners are benefitting from their increased access to music more and more as technology improves and there are more means to listen to the music they love.
As beneficial as streaming services are for listeners, they are contributing to the downfall of the music industry.

"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

artists such as Taylor Swift have begun to withdraw their music from streaming services to publicly announce their disdain for the service and how it operates (O’Brien). When many low-profile artists protest, their arguments are ignored because it will not cost the service a significant loss of customers. New artists may also struggle to break into the music industry because streaming services do not pay much for the use of an artist’s songs. Streaming services have a damaging effect on the careers of artists who are struggling to get by and on the music industry as a whole.
Streaming services have had an effect on the way that new artists produce and distribute music, as well as how they are paid for their services.

People pay low subscription fees to streaming services, and as a result of this, listeners can be exposed to new artists and help these artists become popular (“Music Industry”). New artists are exposed to more people as streaming services often increase the amount of artists that people listen to. While streaming services do result in more exposure for an artist, that’s where the benefits stop. One of the issues with streaming services is payment issues. "Public relations missteps in the early 2000s kept many musicians from speaking out about economic issues, artists and executives said... But the shift toward streaming in recent years has prompted many musicians to investigate the changes in the business and comment online (Sisario)." Artists are not being paid much for providing their music to streaming services, but these issues and artist protests are being ignored by executives of the services until a high-profile artist makes the wage disparity public. "Streaming services pay a lot less than downloads, with the artists receiving a fraction of a cent per play on the service. Newer artists could struggle with the level of payments offered by the services, opponents have argued (O’Brien).” Hardworking artists are not receiving as much money from streaming services as they did from people purchasing their albums. This

is a huge problem for new artists who don't have much money and are trying to begin a career in the music industry (O'Brien). To put it briefly, new artists are facing a more difficult time than ever to attempt to make it big in the music industry, which is due in part to the major role of streaming services in an artist’s popularity and revenue.
Streaming services are the newest way that people are able to access their favorite music. As the world has moved into the Digital Age, technology has been a major influence in how artists become popular in the music industry. While there are many positives to being able to listen to music on streaming services, artists feel that streaming services are contributing to the decline of the industry. Technology has had positive and negative effects on the music industry and on how artists produce and distribute their music.