How much does this factor in to todays music being raw sewage

Are they comparing streaming to sales? Why not compare streaming to airplay(radio)?

I disagree with the whole premise that music today is raw sewage. Plenty of great albums out this year already.

ETA: Great might be a little strong, but plenty of good to really good albums.

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Plenty of great albums out this year already. 

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Dude no offense but ive seen your recs on here. most of the bands you like havent even heard of themselves yet

I'll add that I disagree with the premise that musicians can't make a living today. You might not be making millions, but between ticket and merch sales a band can still do ok. You have to tour, not just sit in the studio all day.

This is a terrible take. This article is approaching this from a faulty angle. Let's break down all the flaws:

1. Comparing how many times one person listens to a song (i.e. stream) is not the same as how many copies of that single were purchased by that same person in the 80's. That's stupid, because people only purchased a record once and then listened to it countless times. Did they pay each time? No. Did musicians receive payment each time? No.

At $.0084/stream someone would have to listen to a given song 350 times to approach the $3 (if memory serves) for a copy of that cd single in the 90's. I'm not sure how often people listen to a given song today, but at least this is a better comparison that fits this stupid premise.

The other comparison is how much are royalties/stream compared to royalties/radio play. This too is flawed, because streaming is direct consumer consumption; whereas, radio play is consumer getting what is given to them. Either way the comparisons are never going to be accurate due to the nature of streams compared to radio and cd.


2. musicians made their money on tours; record labels made their money on CD sales. This is something most people don't realize. I worked for a record label for 3 years back in the late 90s, so I come at this with some experience. Weather it be Smashing Pumpkins, Tool or Dinosaur Jr, the labels were taking in the vast majority of the share in profits. Sure the bands would still make bank on big time record sales, but the percentage of the overall take was small. Touring on the other hand was ALL the bands profits. The CD's popularity helped bring in bodies to the venues, so there was a symbiotic relationship between the two that can't be ignored. Record sales were important to the band for this reason, but they were important to the label for the sales figures.

Some bands were exceptions, because they found independence from or even power within the labels. Metallica is a prime example of this, and that is why they were campaigning against Napster. Bands that did not see a big share of record sales profits were extremely pro napster, because it was given them exposure to a wider audience thus a larger income from touring.


This article ignores all of this. It takes a faulty premise and runs with it as if bands are making less now today than in years past. I contend it's the opposite (though this is strictly off of deduction, not data). Streaming services have brought exposure to so many bands that never would have had it in previous decades, and they are seeing the benefits when touring. While record labels may be suffering from individual sales, they have found a way to make money out of contracts with these streaming services instead. It's a new world now, and it is much better for the artists than at any time in the past.


The bands FINALLY have power over their music, and that is a great thing.

Do the artists rely on Spotify et al to self report the number of streams?

I can easily see some shenanigans written into their code to keep the numbers down.

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If this happens and they get caught, they would be put in jail. That's theft.

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I am sure there is plenty of gray area in what constitutes a stream. What if I only listen for 45 seconds before jumping to the next song?

Music as we knew it back in the 60's-90's is never coming back.

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Plenty of great albums out this year already.

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Curious to hear your list. Looking for new stuff.

I would say money has zero role in today's music being raw sewage. Good artists are compelled to make music because they love doing it. I don't think there's any artist who is solely in music just to make money.

Today's (popular) music is trash because of the culture. Rap is popular and it has sort of infiltrated and destroyed every genre. You cannot be popular unless you are a rapper or implement rap (or Hip Hop) into your music somehow. This is thanks to record companies who want to turn as much profit as possible, so they push their artists to do this crap. Even country artists are forced to rap to sell records now. It's ridiculous.