In a recent interview, producer Rick Rubin, who has become a kind of musical guru for not just the artists he works with but the music world in general, had some interesting thoughts on streaming music.
“I love that when there is something I want to hear I can find it, but I don’t want to have to do the work of picking everything I’m going to listen to. I like being programmed to. And I like the discovery of somebody else playing something that I wasn’t expecting and getting to enjoy that.”
It’s an appropriate topic given that iTunes just turned 20 years old in 2023 and services like Spotify will hit their two-decade birthdays in the next few years. Streaming has rapidly and completely (by all practical measures) swallowed whole the entirety of the music industry and just about killed off every other form of listening…in just 20 years.
And, what Rubin said points out the cost-benefit analysis of streaming in our world. For those of us who were weened on buying music from a store and listening to terrestrial radio, it has been a sea change in how we consume music. Some of it has been absolutely miraculous. Some has come with consequences, so let’s take a look at the pros and cons and how they impact our listening today, especially for those who don’t remember (or weren’t around) when music was consumed so very differently.
Benefit: You can hear virtually anything you want whenever you want.
Cost: It can be complicated to find anything new.
Let’s start with the most obvious and also the most complex. If someone told you when you were toting around records back before the dawn of civilization that one day you would carry around not just your own record collection but literally the entire collection of music in the world in your pocket, you’d probably have thought they had just dropped acid at a Dead show. But, the fact is, that is EXACTLY what you can do now. It’s absolutely incredible.
At the same time, it has a tendency to push us off into our own little worlds rather than open up new ones. When radio was around and music stores, there were curators who could steer you in the right direction. And they were all over the map in their choices. You can still find people talking about music today, but they are far more scattered. All the time saved through the simple access of music is now lost in searching for something new. Being programmed to, as Rubin put it, has real benefits.
Benefit: It’s much cheaper.
Cost: It bankrupts musicians.
This might be the most insidious problem with streaming and it was something people long predicted with the first emergence of file sharing services like Napster. Once music cost little or nothing to consumers, they would never go back to shelling out $15 for a record. And, it’s understandable. Who wants to pay for 12 songs when you only want to hear the hit? iTunes helped in that regard by allowing people to pay for a single song for 99 cents, but when streaming made that obsolete, something worse happened.
It has been well documented by artists popular and otherwise the pittance they receive in revenues from streaming. They have fought it at every turn, but it has only gotten worse. Many have shrugged and said, “Why should we care about how much money millionaire musicians make?” The problem is that for every Taylor Swift, there are thousands of struggling young Taylor Swifts trying to succeed and if they can’t put food on the table, they’ll likely be forced to do something else potentially costing us the next Taylor Swift in the process.
Benefit: You can access streaming anywhere.
Cost: As long as you are connected to the internet.
There are plenty of people who probably don’t even think about this particular caveat until there is a power or internet outage. But, this is the reality for millions of people across the world with little or no access to internet services. Sure, there are still ways to download songs to your phone, but no one really wants to do that when they can just stream something. And if you don’t have access, you are out of luck. With radio, that was never an issue. It was public and it was free.
Benefit: Any artist can publish their own work.
Cost: It drowns out great artists with the noise of everyone else.
The great thing about the internet and social media is that anyone can say anything anytime they want. The bad thing about the internet and social media is that anyone can say anything anytime they want. Therein lies the problem. Yes, many talented and brilliant musicians ply their wares online, but so do just as many (if not more) awful ones. Everyone has access whether they should or not and if you have the money to promote your work, even if your work doesn’t really warrant success, you can push it farther than someone who may be a legitimate “starving artist.” It can force to the fringes something that may, had it been better exposed, otherwise have found an audience while some hot garbage ends up in your recommended songs list.
Benefit: Songs can be released on a whim.
Cost: The album is dying.
This may not matter to some, but a collection of songs from an artist is important because it helps frame something that they are feeling at that moment in time. Truly great bands and musicians can organize their own material in a way as to give it greater meaning. Songs can lead into other songs and deliver a bigger impact than a bunch of tunes randomized.
Swift fans should immediately recognize how she canonizes her work into collections. The Eras Tour was the personification of that particular kind of organization and it was insanely well received. We aren’t the artists. We don’t understand the full meaning of songs, but we can gain greater insight if we trust the musicians to deliver them in the way they want us to hear them. We can always shuffle later, but getting that first listen all the way through from first to last can create an emotional arc worth hearing.
Benefit: The catalog of songs is endless.
Cost: The services control just how endless it is.
Even when there were disputes between artists and record labels or problems with publishing, you didn’t have to worry about gaining access to music. You could buy a record, even if it was second hand, or get a copy from a friend (hello, cassettes and CDs!). But, what happens when an album or artists just disappears from streaming altogether? What about obscure titles and bands who never made it to a streaming platform?
This is becoming an issue with old television shows. They are beginning to disappear because streaming services don’t want to pay to carry them but they are no longer published in media formats like DVDs. And even if you can find that cool band you love, they might not have their entire catalog available. This happens when artists record for soundtracks, for example, and the rights are disputed. Without some kind of backup, we are all out in the cold.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
