Final Essay

With the advancements in technology, the trend of the digital age is imposing its will on the music industry. Artists need to embrace the change, not fight it, and accept the fact that the future of the industry will be in the hands of streaming and downloading it online, not buying CDs or other physical copies. The increase of technological use also brings about problems of digital piracy since files can easily be put online and shared through various outlets. Piracy has been one of the largest deterrents for artists when considering putting their music online, they feel that they do not get the monetary value that they deserve. However, I find that the monetary value should take a back seat to the cultural value of the musicians work. The

Spotify alone increased its revenues approximately seventy-four percent last year, revenues grew $395.4 million in 2013 compared to $299.4 million in 2012 (Tyler). Streaming is also beneficial for sampling artists’ music without having to pay a penny. Adults aged eighteen and older are more likely to buy albums (digital or physical copies) after being exposed to the music via streaming websites like Spotify or YouTube (Tyler). On the other side of the spectrum, it is important for artists to note that Spotify actually pays more in royalties than terrestrial radio in the U.S. and the U.K. Per-listener, one play on terrestrial radio ranges from $0.000186 to $0.000372 in the U.S, while a typical Spotify payout is $0.007 cents per stream of the same song (Tyler). Public perception of these royalties may be skewed since radio royalties are not necessarily thought of as generating revenue for one song to an individual listener. Say for example a radio station plays a hit song for their viewers, it is heard by a relatively large audience at one time and the royalties paid by that particular radio station is a function of its own revenue. In contrast, a streaming company (like Spotify) reports royalty payouts as a per-play cost. The biggest difference that people ignore is the differentiation of audience sizes for a radio station and a streaming outlet. The perception created is that radio royalties tend to be larger because more people listen to the radio, while on-demand royalties feel miniscule because not enough consumers utilize the services of streaming