It is going to be interesting to see how streaming changes the industry, from perspective of what music gets created - albums or singles. Since the incentive is on songs played, it is more impactful for an artist to create a hit song, than a full album, as a hit song is more likely to get recommended / shared / picked up by an algorithm. I wish it wasn’t this way and services would recommend to us albums more, as I remember times when I was listening to a CD end to end - felt like experiencing the art as the artist intended.
Well, I made a left turn in my career and decided to get into artist/band management (music industry) around a decade ago after being in the musical instruments industry for two decades. I was also managing a record label and it looked promising - until streaming started taking off. When I started out, it was about overseeing the production of the artists' albums from tracking to mastering, then the packaging, CD production and, finally, distribution direct from the artists' sites and through distributors selling to CD stores, including mass merchandisers like Walmart and Amazon, etc. Then, I'd set up the albums and tracks for downloads on iTunes and, finally, for streaming.
Around a decade ago, CD sales were still fairly strong. If I divided up sales by channel/media, then it was around 50% CD, 45% downloads (mainly iTunes, now Apple Music), and only 5% by streaming. By around 2016, streaming revenues had grown 10-fold but both CD and downloads sales plummeted dramatically to well below half of their peak sales. And, of course, even a 10-fold increase in streaming revenues could not even come close to making up for the lost CD/download sales. It was a depressing thing to observe for me as well as the musicians.
I saw the writing on the wall and decided I needed to get out of the music making industry and get back to what I know and have experience in: the guitar and musical instruments industry. There was no hope whatsoever making a living selling music. The only way for original music artists and bands to make a living is to tour and sell CDs and other merchandise like T-shirts, etc. I'm not talking about mega pop stars who have various other avenues to rake in money but working musicians and band members in rock, metal, fusion, and jazz genres which have all become sort of "underground" and are, generally speaking, no longer considered "mainstream" like pop, hip hop, and dance-oriented genres.
Musicians obviously hate the streaming business model and are distraught over it but they are powerless to really do anything about it. That's just become the reality. Basically, an artist/band gets paid something like $0.00001 per stream although that will vary a bit between different services. Their best shot is at building enough of a hardcore following that will actually buy the CDs and download but that is extremely hard to do. I feel very sorry for the great majority of the musicians. Working in this industry, I deal with world class musicians all the time and it's a struggle for them to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table - especially in genres like prog rock, metal, fusion and jazz who are the ones I deal with the most. And, of course, the pandemic was a double whammy because they couldn't go out and perform or sell merchandise on tours.
I have read a lot of biographies of musicians (ranging from the great classical composers to jazz giants and rock legends) and quite a few are rather tragic stories. And these stories are of immortal legends whose music have lived on for centuries and will continue to do so for as long as humanity exists. I suppose that's the consolation in that their names and their creations will live on and that this is what every serious aspiring artist/musician hopes to achieve, no matter how bad the reality gets. I see them in my line of work all the time and some of them are good friends. Sometimes I can't help but recall that famous Hunter Thompson quote about the music industry:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
. I use Qobuz by the way...
