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Streaming music and the indie artist

It’s now 2016 and a lot of stuff had to happen for us to get where we are. Streaming markets are now the #1 place to find music and pay the artist. Spotify is on top of things with Apple coming close behind. What use to be a way to pay the artist via buy and download through Bandcamp, including iTunes is now being overshadowed with the streaming market. The problem lies in if you are an artist and have little to no fan base, streaming audio does nothing for you as far as revenue is concerned.  Thanks to the digital market making it the normal thing to stream music and only stream, we are stuck with a true issue. The problem is simple, so many can stream, and be done with it. Even allowing someone to download ‘for free’ usually does not yield results. They will go to A: streaming site instead of B: streaming / buy platform. Artists can beat their heads against the wall and still nothing will change. We’re all facing this trying time. The economy is partly to blame and streaming music is fully to blame. Being in my late 30s I remember when CD’s were the way of life, go to the store, buy a 15 dollar CD, come home and hope the rest of the album is as good as its debut single. But that wasn’t always the case through. We’ve seen streaming sites come and go in the last 5 years. When does it end? Is it ever going to help the solo artist, the unknown musician who not only pays to have their music uploaded to be streamed but gets back less than 11 dollars a year from streaming payments? Is this the future of music?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could find a way to better ourselves? The full feeling of glorification knowing that your music is being downloaded ‘for free’ for sale, whatever. This issue isn’t being ignored either, musicians across the world are speaking out about the streaming war, in how unfair payment we all get. WEATNU Records only sells through weatnu.com and Bandcamp, because of this. Is there a reason to do more? Not really but let’s not be so negative for a moment. Musicians only want one thing, exposure, we’ve gone so low as to say we don’t even want money but money would be a good thing, at least the artist then knows they are being appreciated. We’re in a checkmate these days thanks to the large labels and their near ownership of these streaming services. It was said that some of the biggest players in the music mainstream made only 1000 dollars from 1 million plays through Spotify. Solo artists aren’t just starving to be heard, they are dying… How much longer before many simply give up? If someone doesn’t do something about this, many musicians who you use to know outside the mainstream will eventually fade away. Perhaps in the future someone will do something about this truly unfair advantage that these large corporations have over us. Oddly, you pay to be played, on these services. The truth of the matter is, you get paid peanuts and really what’s the use of any artist paying for a service they get nothing in return? These aren’t new problems, but they are continuing to be a real uphill battle for all of us.

As streaming services continue to tighten their grip on the indie artist, the indie artist continues to lose more money. Seriously.. no one can make it on 11 dollars a year. Some if they are lucky and have a decent fan base will make about 100 dollars a year from streaming. I take you to these problems because a lot of people just aren’t talking about it. An artist needs to sell their music, that’s their worth. Even WEATNU Records suffers from this, and since the label does not utilize streaming services, we in a whole are not part of the bigger picture. Fans do not buy music these days, they don’t have to, as many have said. It’s become an ever increasing battle that people don’t even buy CD’s or Vinyl, unless you release music that everyone likes. These words are dark, they are not sugar coated but they are in fact truthful. What happens when the majority of these talented artists do not tour? They do not sell.. It’s been said that if you are a touring artist, then you can sell your CD’s and tapes at the venue, people buy and go home happy. This abyss we call the Internet is eating us whole. Do you think there is an answer to this ever increasing problem called streaming audio?
Fans can listen forever on Bandcamp but never have to pay one dime. The simple act of charity is just not there, yet the artist needs your dollar to buy more equipment or food.
Soundcloud is now the leading service to change their policy, starting this year they plan to charge. This is just one more nail in the coffin wouldn’t you say? The solo artist or unknown band simply writes music for the love of it, that itself is their livelihood, it’s their dream to release the next album. Thanks to the artists themselves and the passion of their creation, we can at least go on hearing their music, free or not. The show must go on.

Almark#WEATNU Digital Magazine – March 2016.

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The State of Electronic Music

by Dave Bulera

As we all know the state of music is changing.
It has been changing for years now.
Especially electronic music.

Electronic music has existed from as far back as the 1920s, but
it started becoming increasingly common starting in the late 1960s.
During the 1970s after the more affordable and portable synthesizers were released,
electronic music started to take off.
Rock bands started toying with electronic music, and this lead to synth rock.

As the 70s progressed so did electronic music. With the development of MIDI and digital audio.
Toward the end of the 70s and the early 80s, synthpop became more popular.

Through the 80s, electronic music changed into many forms.
New genres started to pop up.
Ambient, then Techno and Electronica, downtempo, and breakbeat.
These forms grew in popularity in the 90’s.
As the 2000s hit so did many more genres.
Different forms of the electronic sounds morphed into new sounds and styles.
This is about the time where Dubstep and EDM started gaining ground.

 

As time went by, many styles remained, but the electronic genre in mainstream music steadily declined.

Rock, metal, hip hop, and especially pop not only held their ground but took over the electronic scene.

The most recent figures show that electronic music only holds about 9% of the radio market.
Pop/Rock holds 24% of that same market.
EDM and Dubstep still tend to get the lion’s share of the plays worldwide in the electronic market.

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The reason for this trend is because of the record label structure world wide.
Universal holds most of the rights to music worldwide. With 57% of all music signed under Universal, it’s no wonder that Pop/Rock, and EDM are so much more popular, because Universal makes it that way.

Surprisingly independent labels hold 15% of the market,which is actually more than Sony at 13%.
But keeping in mind that this is all of the independents combined.

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Music has gone the way of streaming.
But if you add up all the streaming services, Spotify, Beats Music, Deezer, Rdio, Rhapsody, Xbox Music, Sony Music Unlimited, what you get is that paid, on-demand subscription services account for just 3% of overall music spending.

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This is the mountain we need to climb as electronic artists, and electronic music fans.
We somehow need to figure out how to get that 9% of the radio market to increase dramatically.

With the advancement of the Internet, and the the growth of streaming services, getting any music heard is becoming much more difficult.
Along with the fact that there are many more artists to compete with than ever before.

This is the reason why WEATNU was created. To try to bridge the gap, and give artists a better chance of getting heard.

A group of artists with a goal to help each other, and get the music out to the masses.
The big goal, to get that 9% of the market closer to that 24% at the top.

Sources: Wikipedia - Electronic Music; Google Research : Music Timeline - Dance/Electronic; Next Big Sound Presents 2014: State Of The Industry; Digital Music News - On-Demand Streaming Subscriptions Account for 3% of Music Spending.
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