Audius And The Streaming Dichotomy
The consumption of music has been steadily migrating to digital mediums over the past decade or so, a movement accelerated by COVID-19. To whit, in 2020, Spotify’s monthly active users grew 27% from the previous year.
Music Booming, Musicians Exploited
Streaming is now, by far, the most prevalent medium of consuming music. A concoction of increased smartphone usage, greater availability of streaming services, and the reducing cost of data have all helped drive this migration to digital distribution and consumption. This is reflected in the growing revenues of music streaming and is projected to increase in the future.
Global music streaming revenue 2005-2020
Despite the abundance of revenues generated, music streaming platforms are notorious for under paying artists and creators. Large distribution platforms understand that the reach they provide artists renders other options for distribution impractical. This behavior has led artists to speak up against these platforms, but ultimately even the most popular artists, like Taylor Swift, have been relatively unsuccessful in their fight.
