This week, Charles Connolly veers from his usual 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, and writes a review of a different kind…
Fancy a break? Review after review, every single week. While this might be tiring to the writer, one might not think of the reader. Perhaps the reader needs a break. Of course, the reader can choose not to read the latest review. But then there is FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. And so you dear people feel the urge to dive once more into the world of reviews. A break can be a nice thing. Not just for me, but for you. Review review review. Another one, another one, another one. Just give us a break, already! Okay. You’ve got your wish. No review this week. It’s break time. But there will instead be a review of sorts. A review of the current musical climate. The business. The nasty business… You’re gonna wish this was just a normal weekly review… Taking a break can be a good thing. A much needed thing. A necessary and vital thing. But most importantly, it’s up to you. Take music for example. We musical artists are constantly making music. That’s what we do. Taking the occasional break might be a wise decision, in order to breathe, relax and take stock. But if you’re right in the flow of, say, an album, then a break is the last thing you might want. Most likely a quick shot of something strong, then right back to it. What then if at that very moment, a break is forced upon you? And what if said break is seemingly indefinite…? More on that later.
Because of the nature of this article, I will be dotting about quite a bit. Make a pot of tea, and stay focussed. This will hopefully explain EVERYthing.
I am here to talk about Spotify. The main listening platform for music these days. Around 615 million accounts are currently active. That’s a lot of people. But not all of these are paying customers. They offer a free tier – something that never should have existed in the music industry. This tier floods you with adverts every few songs, plays in low quality, and plays albums in random order. This in itself I would have said to be enough to put off the average listener. But the average listener cares more about their own money than they do about quality; sadly. The artist on the other hand, is sure to be up in arms over this. Well, they used to be. Until they got used to the idea. Deadened and numbed by imperative force. The artist doesn’t have a choice. There are frankly (and unfortunately) far worse things for an artist on Spotify, than their music being obliterated by adverts, in low quality and random order. The adverts aren’t in low quality, by the way; Lord no! They’ve paid good money for this! Which is more than I can say for the punters. The average listener is no longer the paying customer. The advertiser is. The few who choose to actually pay for the service (a mere 239 million people) do get a decent service. But what about the artist side of things? Do they earn a decent wage from their music being listened to on Spotify? Well, some do. A few do. A few does? The mega mainstream artists earn a great deal from streaming services, but this is the very few who earn so much from so many avenues within the industry (mainly touring), that the streaming revenue might seem insignificant to them. More on the artist side in a bit.
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