Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have dominated the industry over the past decade, leading to a total shift in the way artists create, release and promote their music. While musicians used to rely solely on the good fortune of record executives to produce and advertise their work, now those jobs have fallen heavily on the artists themselves.
Endless online debates have sparked over this streaming migration and whether it has been a net positive or negative for the industry at large. However, a significant, yet underrepresented, conversation lies in how consumers are reacting to this massive shift and the way their delineation between good and bad art is changing with it, possibly for the worse.
In the pre-streaming world, listening to the radio was the necessary means of discovering new songs and artists. After a listen, or several hundred, full albums could be bought if one felt like hearing more from the artist. Because the radio existed as the sole gateway between artists and consumers, it was almost completely up to the listener to decide whether they wanted to hear more of a specific sound or explore other varieties of music instead.
Streaming platforms have somewhat disallowed this inevitable immersion in music across different genres that radio once provided. Now, these services collect specific data about the consumer and regurgitate back to them the genres they already enjoy. This hyper-individualized approach to the advertisement of music has created an illusion of choice for the listener, when really their choices are all the same.
For example, Taylor Swift’s latest album “The Life of a Showgirl” has received mixed reviews from critics, with many fans openly admitting the quality of her songwriting has taken a dip on this record. Despite the relatively unfavorable hubbub surrounding the album, it has surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify alone. While this number is absolutely a product of Swift’s uniquely dedicated fanbase and clever marketing strategies, it is also reliant on the inescapable pressure to listen to and enjoy the album by individually tailored playlists and promotional material on streaming platforms.
Listeners were previously forced to hear new sounds and expand their tastes by default. Now, they get stuck in a bubble of comfort and staleness, and they must go out of their way to find difference. The streaming boom has convinced consumers that good art is only they’ve already heard. A new sound is no longer exciting and intriguing, but confusing and uncomfortable. The idea that liking a piece of media equates to its inherent quality has overtaken the voices of critics and industry professionals. Critics have lost the cultural resonance they once shared with the public. Streaming has given listeners the illusion that they understand music to the same degree as critics, when really, they only have ears to a tiny corner of sound.
This sharp turn in the way people find, listen to and understand music may seem relatively insignificant, but it completely affects the industry at large. Informed criticism is devalued, new and distinctive artists are pushed aside in favor of reliable and profitable ones and, therefore, new kinds of music are unable to gain traction. This impacts not only professionals, but listeners as well. Consumers should desire to be shown fresh and diverse sounds, allowing the expansion of taste, because art is our tie to other cultures, perspectives and beauties. Without access to good and original art, we have nothing to connect with.
