Is music in danger from streaming?

In some record shops you were able to sit in a booth and listen to the new record, or put on headphones in a small hood.

It may have been a single, an EP (extended player) or a beautiful pristine LP (long player). Some releases even came in a wonderful gatefold album cover. I would sit reading every single word on the cover as the tracks played, preferably with my headphones to appreciate every note and word of the lyrics. I would also read who the musicians were, who guested on the album, where it was recorded, and everything you would ever want to know about the artist and album.

I can remember the release of Abbey Road, by The Beatles, where two friends and I sat in the kitchen caressing cups of coffee, and listened to the album over and over again. Oh, for those days again.

Times move on though, and through the years I have collected vinyl, cassette tapes, and CD’s, and I still display them all in my music room (OK, bedroom). My collection must have cost me thousands of pounds to accumulate, and I have given strict instructions that on my demise, the collection MUST NOT be destroyed, but must be cherished by my children.

Today, everything is streamed which is extremely convenient, but I have recently been made aware of how little goes makes it way to the artists. I recently did a bit of research on the web, and came up with the following figures for payment per stream.

Spotify - £0.0025, Apple - £0.0044, Google Play - £0.0043, Deezer - £0.0034

To put that in perspective, after one million streams on Apple, an independent band would make the princely sum of £4,400. I am not a musician, and don’t know the exact costs involved in recording, but I think a band with five members would make little return once they have paid for studio time, multiple format manufacturing, and other costs. Meanwhile, the CEO of Spotify is reportedly worth £3 billion, and he has never written or recorded any music.

This affects all musicians, but a small startup, will obviously struggle more than a famous artist such as Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand or Elton John. They will get considerably more than one million streams worldwide, and can subsidise their income with sell out concerts where tickets often retail at several hundred pounds. Many of these artists accumulated their deserved wealth pre-streaming days, and I wonder how many would have fallen by the wayside if they were starting today. There are also recording contracts, but I am not aware of the details of these, and they don’t apply to independent bands.

MPs have recently announced that they are to launch an inquiry into the streaming, but if I were a musician, I would not be holding my breath.

I listen to a stream of a new release, and if I like it, I buy it, and my preference is vinyl. However, even an MP3 purchase won’t break the bank, as on Amazon, the cost for a recently released album, when I checked, was in the region of £6.50.

I may still use streaming of purchased music for convenience, when I am out and about, as my vinyl is hard to play in the car, but I am happy that I have supported the artist with my purchase, to allow them to continue recording new material.

So, the next time you enjoy a stream, please buy one of the many available formats to make sure that you support the artists and they can continue to make music for us all to enjoy.

You can tune in to Torbay Hospital Radio on 95.9FM, listen via the internet at www.torbayhospitalradio.com/listenlive/ , or on you smart speaker.