Musicians have been in a struggle arc for some time, and streaming services are somewhat to blame for the modern form of it. Spotify pays artists jack shit but this has lead to a lot of people moving to services like Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, etc and crowing that it is the superior moral choice when in reality those platforms suck almost as much. Music streaming platforms are another example of how tech capitalism screws over independent creators in order to throw cash into the gaping maws of investors.
Sometimes streaming platforms have features worth the subscription price but if you really like music and if you really like art then support it in the traditional ways that actually provide them with some money:
- Buy albums,
- Go to concerts,
- Buy merch.
The Case For Streaming
I still have my Spotify subscription - I’m not going to cancel that because I find it eminently useful for music discovery. When I’m playing a song or album I can hit the kebab, press “Go to song radio”, and know that I’ll be immediately on a journey of finding similar tunes. When you’re listening to niche genres it can only be so effective but it will also likely find you something new and different that you also vibe with. You can check out the artist, play+like a few more songs (in the vain hope of training a black box algorithm) and keep hitting “Go to song radio” on a little journey of aural discovery.
The more you check out the radios of songs you haven’t heard before, the further you go down that pipeline, the more you discover new genres and collections of artists you haven’t heard before, the more you find music that touches you or gets you grooving in ways you hadn’t really done before, and for that alone I’m happy to keep paying Spotify.
Alongside that, Spotify does a pretty good job with it’s “Daily Mix” series of playlists - each day it generates a new collection of six (6) or so playlists based on genres you’ve been listening too lately and they make for great listening during the work day - it’s a tailored feed for you without the shitty AI voice DJ or the really hit’n’miss nature of some of their other attempts like Smart Shuffle. While it builds the playlists based off artists and songs you have had in rotation it also tries to throw in similar stuff you may not have heard which also helps on the discovery angle. This is probably because Spotify put in so much work on isolating and manually working out the types of music people listened too… Before it fired the people in charge of that.
This level of discovery, all in the same place that I’m listening to music, really makes it worth the sub for me. I know that by liking and listening to songs it’s probably also helping the artists get more notice from The Algorithm™ but it’s not a fair trade-off for how little they earn from it which leads me to one of my goals for 2024.
2024 - The Year Of Buying Music
I decided to buy an album (or an equivalent value in EPs/singles) each week to support artists that I loved listening too. Every time I found banger songs or albums or artists I’d add them to a list in my Obsidian setup and every Sunday I’d start scouring to buy a DRM-free digital copy of their music. During the year, my purchases primarily came from three places:
- Bandcamp - my preference based on their share for artists, especially on a Bandcamp Friday.
- iTunes - The era of iTunes Store music DRM is long over and means that it’s honestly a great source for music even if it constantly tries to push you into using Apple Music instead.
- Beatport - Please DJ’s, put your stuff on Bandcamp or iTunes instead.
I loaded all the music I purchased into the (private) Funkwhale I set up which I can then easily listen to on any browser when I’m at home or work and I have the Ultrasonic app on my phone for when I want to listen to tunes on the go.
This is my main option if I’m playing music to help me sleep, or if I want to listen to a specific album or artist. I have Funkwhale set to scrobble to my Last.fm so I can track what I’ve been listening too and while that does have some options to discover new tunes I’ll admit that Spotify is still the clear winner in that arena. Although I always laughed at some of the ridiculous audiophile culture I’ll admit I’ve noticed substantial difference for some artists and genres between the lossless FLAC from Bandcamp and the streamed Spotify versions so I’ll eat a bit of humble pie right now.
Why Else You Should Buy Music
Streaming isn’t a flash-in-the-pan trend that will disappear - it’s not a MiniDisc or VHS where some years down the track you realise you have no way to play that album you lost your virginity too. That’s the advantage of streaming - if the service ever shuts down you can use one of the others and not lose access things you have paid for in full.
It’s more like Uber and Netflix. It’s convenient and it’s incredibly cheap although the price has gone up a few times. Sure there’s been it’s fair share of scandals and some incredibly bad business decisions and weird catering to nutjobs but we can’t deny that it’s convenient even if it platforms absolute freaks.
But Uber kept rising in price because it cost more then it was making. It survived cheaply for so long because it was paid for by other people’s money. Spotify has lasted so well because it got enough investor money that it could eventually go public (despite losing money for all twelve years until that moment) in order to keep making money it needs to fuck over the people who make the actual content. For every Taylor Swift or Joe Rogan who earn decent dosh from it, there’s millions of artists who see a few bucks a month if they’re lucky. And because these streaming services became the de facto way to listen to music it made it harder to buy albums (goodbye CD stores) and technology has made it increasingly more annoying to load your own music on it which helps keep these streaming services on top.
And much like we’ve seen with how the video streaming wars have caused constant price rises and massive backlash from the makers of films/shows we can expect that music streaming will rise in price and find new and creative ways to screw over Australian indie rock sensation Tame Impala and also good music projects.
To an extent though, it’s also about preservation.
Spotify doesn’t have all the music. Apple Music has even less then it. Tidal, Deezer, and the like have even less. Some things now only exists as rips uploaded to YouTube and many other artists aren’t even there. I’ve seen music I loved on Spotify disappear due to record company bullshit and no longer be accessible. But if I’ve bought a copy of that album, I’ve still got it. I can still listen to what brought me to tears or gave me the energy to dance all night. I can still put it on if I’m behind decks or showing a friend something new.
So buy music, not just to keep it alive in case it disappears, but to feed the artists so they can keep making more.
Anyway,
Buy some tunes from these folks on Bandcamp who released music last year that I loved:
I’d also recommend some of the following evergreen amazing artists: