So, you’ve heard about Spotify, and jumped on the bandwagon for free! Good one! After all, from what I read and hear, streaming music is apparently the way of the future; for artists and consumers alike. It’s like having your own personal radio station, playing only what you want to hear, whenever you want to hear it.
Can I suggest an expanded listening plan for you, then explain why (I’ve gone with that order primarily because nobody reads past the first few lines of a blog).
- Use Spotify to try out music – see what it’s like, if it’s for you or not.
- If it is, and you can see yourself listening to it regularly, buy the music from the artist (directly from them or a decent digital distributor). This will actually keep the artist in business, and they will then, in turn, produce more music for you in the future.
Why should follow your wise ways, I hear you ask?
As many websites have probably already told you, an artist gets roughly $0.005 per stream of their music – partial streams, even less. I can verify this as fact – my digital distribution summary shows me as much.
What’s more, Spotify is one of the good ones! LastFM pay even less. Half of the half of the cent, usually.
And not only do artists get that magically minuscule amount, it turns up in our accounts roughly 3 months after the stream was played!
But I can listen to it forever for free – why should I buy it?
Do you like the music the artist produces? Does it evoke emotions in you that you wouldn’t experience without it? Does it bring you joy? Does it make you air-drum like you’ve never air-drummed before?
Do you want to go on a different musical journey further down the track with the same artist? Then give them what they need to create those emotions in you by giving them the income they need to produce the music. If something’s free, someone is losing out somewhere…
Streaming may be the future, yes, but make sure that the future contains the music you like!
More soon…