- Jared Demel -
The music industry has changed vastly over the past several
years – and its not slowing down. From streaming services to illegal downloads,
we are quickly seeing the traditional structure of the music industry model go
belly-up. Once upon a time, if you liked a particular artist or wished to hear
a new album, you would go out to the store and make a purchase. Today however,
the majority of music available is either streamed or downloaded online.
Unfortunately for the industry and artists alike, most music available is also
being downloaded illegally. According to an article from The Guardian, “An estimated 95% of music available online is being
downloaded illegally.” (Swash 1).
With this issue stems an even larger problem that may
essentially transform the entire way music is both tracked and rated. Presently,
the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), maintains the ‘standard’
for ratings within the music industry by allocating various certifications
depending on the amount of sales / streams (e.g., Gold, Platinum). While their
model for ratings has proved to be quite sound (pun intended), the advent of
illegal downloads, streaming, and a number of other industry ‘loopholes’ has
crippled their potential for credible and valid classifications.
One such ‘loophole’ includes the recent release of the
album, “Anti” by Rihanna. After going
platinum immediately after release, a
number of flags were raised, mainly dealing with the fact that “Anti” had sold hardly any copies. As
stated by the New York Times in regards to the streaming service, Tidal, the
actual number of copies sold may have been even less than initially purported
by Nielsen. “Nielsen reported that the album sold fewer than 1,000 copies in
the United States; a subscriber to its service who declined to be identified
because the data is private, said that the number of albums sold was 460.”
(Sisario 4). Being that the RIAA’s criteria for going platinum include selling
over 1,000,000 copies, a “pre-purchase” contract deal made between Rihanna’s
label, Def Jam, and Samsung should satisfy any stipulation… A bit shady, don’t
you think?
In attempting to keep up with the vastly growing market of
streaming, the RIAA has also incorporated a new system for analyzing data. As
noted on their website:
“After a comprehensive analysis of
a variety of factors – including streaming and download consumption patterns
and historical impact on the program – and also consultation with a myriad of
industry colleagues, the RIAA set the new Album Award formula of 1,500
on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale.
RIAA’s digital Single Award ratio will be updated from 100 on-demand streams =
1 download to 1500 on-demand streams = 1 download.” (RIAA)
As both an avid listener and creator of music, not only do
these figures seem just plain outrageous, but it also seems as though the line
between consumer demand and actual consumption is becoming incredibly blurred.
As evidenced by the growth of streaming services, it’s clear
that the way society consumes music is shifting. “The rise in popularity of
streaming music has prompted some prominent names to enter the competition. The
Jay Z venture Tidal, Google Play and, most recently, Apple Music are the latest
paid services for streaming songs” (Alexander, 1). Still the main problem with
streaming services lies in the simple fact that it is a ‘service’, which
generally requires you to pay. The other (larger) culprit affecting the
tracking of ‘success’ for records is none other than pirating (essentially free). I
think the notion of ‘pay for play’ is being phased out by the entitlement,
which people feel towards music. Without getting into the surrounding legality
issues pertaining to piracy, one thing is certain; pirating is occurring each
and every day, at astounding rates.
One notable example to help illustrate how pirating affects
the tracking of success for music is the latest release of Kanye West’s project,
The Life of Pablo. After a number of
discrepancies and some delays, West decided that he was exclusively releasing
the album through the streaming service Tidal. However, as noted by an article
from Billboard, the public’s demand was substantial: “Still, demand for Pablo was high, as evidenced by the
500,000 downloads (estimated by Torrent Freak) in its first 24 hours).” (Rys
5). Interestingly enough, five hundred thousand ‘sales’ as noted by the RIAA would have deemed The Life of Pablo with a ‘Gold’ certification. However, unfortunately for West, these downloads were entirely 'illegal' and the RIAA nor Nielsen considers pirated downloads to be
of any credibility.
If it were RIAA’s goal to maintain a standard in ratings
for music consumption, wouldn’t you think pirated products should still possess
some form of measurable validity? If companies such as Nielsen / Billboard, and
the RIAA continue to neglect such trends as valid forms of ‘consumption’, I
think it’s safe to say that the integrity of any form of music ratings system
is simply void and baseless. My question
for you is whether or not you agree with my sentiment, and if you think such a
question should extend into other industries where pirating is prevalent (e.g.,
film, television, video games)?
Works Cited
Alexander, Madi. “Apple
Music, Spotify and a Guide to Music Streaming Services.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 June 2015. Web. 20 Mar.
2016.
Rhys, Dan. “The
Future of Pablo: What’s Next for Kanye West’s Not-Really-Released Album?” Billboard. Billboard, 19 Feb. 2016. Web.
26 Mar. 2016.
“RIAA DEBUTS
ALBUM AWARD WITH STREAMS - RIAA.” RIAA. 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
Sisario, Ben. “Rihana’s ‘Anti’ Sells Fewer Than 1,000
Copies in U.S., but Some Call It a Hit. “
The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Mar. 2016
“An estimated 95% of music available online is being downloaded illegally,” (Swash); this percentage is unbelievable! I used to love begging my mom to bring my sister and me to the store to get the latest Britney Spears CD. I would always end up leaving with a bag of three of four new CD’s for my Walkman. After reading your post, it’s crazy to think walkmen are considered ancient. I agree that the music industry has made huge changes over the years, but I think these changes have made the industry “fit into” the millennial lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteNow, I download music from Youtube to iTunes and for me, it’s the best. The only work I have to do is find the right version on Youtube and wait about half a minute for the song to download and start playing. When you mentioned Rihanna’s newest album ANTI, it surprised me that it did not sell as well as I thought it would. Her song “Work” is on the radio three stations at a time, 100 times a day. As you quoted, “Nielsen reported that the album sold fewer than 1,000 copies in the United States,” (Sisario). To follow up on that, in a Forbes article I read it stated, “Less than twenty four hours after Rihanna dropped her eighth album on a largely unsuspecting public, streaming music platform Tidal is reporting that one million people have redeemed their codes and gotten their free copies of ANTI,” (McIntyre). This comparison goes to show the digital change the music industry has gone through. McIntyre also stated that “On top of the million (and then some) downloads, ANTI has been streamed 14 million times—just about one million times per hour.”
Downloading music from Youtube isn’t the only way to get music for free. Between Pandora, Google Play, Soundcloud, etc., there is a free streaming service that can work for anyone. Pirating has been around for a long time. Kanye West wanted his Album Life of Pablo to only be for sale through Tidal in order to push Tidal to number one in the App Store. Pablo’s demand was so high, 500,000 downloads were pirated in the first 24 hours. West then took the album down in order to make corrections to it. Trans World Entertainment divisional ¬merchandise manager Ish Cuebas said, “The longer he waits, the worse [the piracy] will get,” (Rys).
It’s clear that streaming and pirating music has taken over the classic way of listening to and purchasing music. Although, I do not think these habits will end anytime soon. Free streaming is an easier way for millenials to obtain their music and I can bet I’m not the only person who thinks so.
Work Cited:
McIntyre, Hugh. "Rihanna's New Album Has Already Been Downloaded One Million Times." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Rys, Dana. "The Future of Pablo: What's Next for Kanye West's Not-Really-Released Album?" Billboard. N.p., 19 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Sisario, Ben. “Rihana’s ‘Anti’ Sells Fewer Than 1,000 Copies in U.S., but Some Call It a Hit. “ The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Swash, Rosie. "Online Piracy: 95% of Music Downloads Are Illegal." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
The music industry certainly has changed over the past few years and I think our generation has definitely been a great witness to this. I can remember carrying my Walkman with me to school and a number of different CDs in my backpack in case I wanted to listen to something different. Growing up, every compartment in my parent’s cars would have at least one or two CDs in it and that is how we listened to the latest music and survived long road trips. Now, my expectation when I go into someone’s car is if they have an aux cord so I can plug in my phone and listen to the music I’ve (illegally) downloaded.
ReplyDeleteLike Sarah, I find the song I want on YouTube and convert it to MP3 so then it immediately goes right into my music library on iTunes. The process is so simple and quick and it gives me the ability to get my favorite songs at such a convenience. The other major factor of getting music this way is that it’s free. “Free” is every college student’s favorite word. The last time I actually purchased my music was when Taylor Swift’s album, 1989, was released a few years ago. I wanted all the songs right away and didn’t want to wait for the album to go on YouTube so I “splurged”. I couldn’t tell you the last time I purchased a CD however.
It really is unfortunate to learn that such well-known and successful artists are really struggling with album sales. I was shocked to learn that Rihanna’s latest album, “Anti”, did so poorly with regards to actual sales. “Nielsen reported that the album sold fewer than 1,000 copies in the United States; a subscriber to its service who declined to be identified because the data is private, said that the number of albums sold was 460” (Sisario 4). For me, I always just assumed that artists like Rihanna or Kanye would automatically sell a large amount of albums simply because of their reputations. But, I’ve learned that with the different streaming services around today and the amount of people who illegally download, things have changed and these large, expected sales numbers might not be reached. Jared raised the question of whether or not pirated products should still possess some form of measurable validity and I am starting to think that they should. I know I am not the only one who obtains music the way that I do so I think Nielsen and Billboard and the RIAA should start looking at these trends. In fact, “an estimated 95% of music available online is being downloaded illegally” (Swash 1). Otherwise, numbers will remain small and may even continue to drop and the artists might not receive the recognition they deserve.
Works Cited
Sisario, Ben. “Rihana’s ‘Anti’ Sells Fewer Than 1,000 Copies in U.S., but Some Call It a Hit. “ The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Mar. 2016
Swash, Rosie. "Online Piracy: 95% of Music Downloads Are Illegal." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Our generation grew up with the rapid development of the music industry. Here’s an illustration of the timeline I recall. I remember changing the music cassettes in my dad’s car to the Hanson Brothers (which drove my parent’s crazy haha). Then I used to go to F.Y.E. to pick up the Backstreet Boys CD for my child size CD player. I would say around middle school is when listening to music changed rather quickly. All my friends were getting iPods, iPod Nanos and iPod Shuffles. Then iTunes and LimeWire were a big deal. LimeWire was one of the first introductions of illegal downloads or “free music”. So I agree that our generation has a sense of entitlement when it comes to music. The majority of individuals don’t really want to pay for music anymore. There are too many loopholes to get around it as well. This would explain why “95% of music available online is being downloaded illegally” (Swash, 2009).
ReplyDeleteEven so, the rapid shift of music consumption has lead to some artists like Jay Z to enter the music streaming pool, while other artists refuse. Artists such as Taylor Swift have spoken out about the matter of streaming services especially with free trials. She is withholding her 1989 album from the subscription-based platform from Apple Music (Bereznak, 2015). However, Taylor Swift is an anomaly in the debate of tracking success because her album 1989 sold 1.29 million copies in its first week of release (Caulfield, 2015). I am not sure what to make of this because it shows her album success but what about all the people who have downloaded her music illegally?
Today, I use Spotify, Pandora and Youtube. Streaming music is a great option especially when you don’t want to take up a significant amount of memory on your phone. I really like Spotify because I have the option to create a playlist but it shuffles the songs, which I like. Although, the ads remind me everyday that I can upgrade for a monthly fee, I am still not persuaded to because I am satisfied with the free version of Spotify. If I really love a song I will go to iTunes and buy it. In other words, I am selective when buying music. However, the habit of pirating and streaming music are habits many Millennials have become so accustomed to that it will be difficult to break. As a result, pirating music and steaming should not be discredited when it comes to tracking success for music.
References
Bereznak, A. (2015, June 21). How Taylor Swift Convinced Apple to Pay Independent Artists. Yahoo Technology. Retrieved from https://www.yahoo.com/tech/how-taylor-swift-convinced-apple-to-pay-122081998994.html
Caulfield, K. (2015, Dec. 9). The Year in Pop 2015: Taylor Swift, '1989' and 'Uptown Funk!' Rule as Top Artist, Album and Song. Billboard. Retrieved from http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6792629/the-year-in-pop-2015-taylor-swift-1989-uptown-funk-top-artist-album-song
Swash, R. (2009, Jan. 16). Online Piracy: 95% of Music Downloads Are Illegal. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jan/17/music-piracy
I honestly cannot remember the last time I purchased a song on iTunes or bought an album. There was a time, when iTunes first came out, and even before that when music stores were still in business that I would get excited about buying a new album or single. I used to purchase all my music legally and would be thrilled if I got an iTunes gift card for a birthday or Christmas present. However for the past ten years, I have gotten all of my music illegally. Although this is really awful and apart of me feels bad for the industry and artists making the music, it is hard to pass up free music when I know it is easily attainable. Since so many other people feel the same way, this is why some artists like Kanye West are changing the way they release music.
ReplyDeleteWith 95% of music being downloaded illegally it is hard to imagine that the industry can be making any success off their music. Not only is this an issue, but also some artists have begun to only release their albums on streaming services. Kanye West’s new album The Life of Pablo “is only available for streaming via Tidal and is not available for purchase or download” (Rys and Flanagan). Although this is a good way to stop illegal downloads, I have a hard time understanding how this allows the industry and artists to make a profit, since they aren’t actually selling any copies. As you mentioned in your post, Rihanna’s Anti album was reported to have sold less than 1,000 copies, which is just mind blowing. How can this been seen as a successful album release to the artist or industry? I also have a hard time understanding how the RIAA is attempting to still track the success of music through streaming services, and although there is a new system for analyzing the data, it still seems to be a bit inaccurate.
Just like millions of other individuals, I use streaming services to listen to music occasionally. However, I was not familiar with Tidal until a few weeks ago, but after reading an interview with the new CEO of the company, Jeff Toig, I have a better understanding of why artists are choosing to release their albums through this streaming service. In your post you talk about how Kanye West’s album The Life of Pablo would have been certified ‘Gold’ after the 500,000 downloads that occurred within its first 24 hours of release, but since these downloads were illegal, the RIAA cannot use them as credibility. With this being the case for many artists, Tidal provides them with a safe way to make sure their albums and music is not pirated.
This reason alone is why Tidal has recently had such a buzz. “The company just launched six, seven months ago and it's already grown to over a million subscribers” (Peoples). Although I am not one of the millions of subscribers, it is something I would consider if one of my favorite artists only released their album through this streaming service. I think this is something that will begin to catch up for more artists in the coming years and if it does then maybe pirating will no longer be an issue. However if this service doesn’t catch on and pirating continues to disrupt the industry and artists, I think it is something that the RIAA will have to take into account for tracking and ratings. Either way the RIAA will have to make some changes in how it tracks the success of music.
Rys, Dan, and Andrew Flanagan. "Kanye West Says 'The Life of Pablo' Will Never Be For Sale and Only on Tidal, Sources Express Confusion."Billboard. N.p., 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Peoples, Glenn. "Jay Z's Tidal Gets New CEO: Former SoundCloud Exec Takes the Streaming Reins." Billboard. N.p., 12 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your opening statements about the music industry, that the traditional structure of the music industry is disappearing. The days of going to the store and buying a CD are long gone. Unless you are a music collector or something along those lines, the majority of music consumers are streaming or buying their music or downloading it illegally online.
ReplyDeleteI fall into the majority of people who streams their music; I pay for a monthly subscription on Spotify where I have full access to whatever music I want to listen to. It is much more convenient and cost effective to stream my music. Even if I don’t have WiFi I can download whatever music I plan to listen to ahead of time so I don’t have to worry about not being able to listen to it. I went from going to FYE to buy CDs, to buying music off of iTunes, and now onto streaming music. It is much more convenient and cost effective to stream my music. Many others think the same; according to the New York Times, “By August, Spotify told record distributors that it had as many as 22 million paying users.”(Sisario) It doesn’t seem that this trend of streaming musing will go away anytime soon.
While the current ways people are getting their music are extremely successful and beneficial for users it is not the best for the music industry. Previously artists were making a large portion of their money on album sales but due to streaming and downloading music this is not a reliable source of income to the artist.
I found it interesting that you brought up the sales of Rihanna’s latest album, ANTi. I went to see her in concert on Saturday for the ANTi World Tour and she actually addressed her album sales in the middle of the concert. When she took a break before going onto one of her new songs she took a moment to speak to the audience. She asked “How many of you bought the ANTi album?” to which many people cheered; then she asked, “And how many of you illegally downloaded that shit off the Internet?” once again people cheered. She laughed it off and said how it doesn’t matter now then went on with the rest of the concert.
Artists are now getting a large majority of their profits through concert ticket sales. A great example of this is Paul McCartney, “Paul McCartney posted the second-highest average ticket price of $155.76, and placed No. 13 on the box-office revenue ranking with $77.7 million.” (Lewis) McCartney hasn’t come out with an album since 2013 has still made an amazing amount of concert ticket sales. While seeing a lack of album sales could upset artists to a degree, I don’t think they are in any danger of not making a profit due to streaming and illegal downloads.
Works Cited
Lewis, Randy. "Taylor Swift's '1989' Is 2015's Highest Grossing Concert Tour by Far." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec. 2015. Web.
Sisario, Ben. “Spotify Is Said to Be Seeking $500 Million in New Funds.” New York Times. 27 Jan. 2016. Web.
The music industry much like many others have completely changed in the way that audiences are consuming products. Less than seven years ago I was still legally buying my music through iTunes onto my iPod and had stopped purchasing CD’s in generally whether or not they were hard copies. ITunes had given customers the option to purchase a song or a whole album. However as technology advanced and time progressed the way in which music consumption occurred had changed as well.
ReplyDeleteNow a day’s most people will download their music from YouTube and convert it to an MP3 to then download to their device for free. This downloading process is a heck of a lot easier, faster, and cheaper than purchasing music from the iTunes store. It’s no wonder that almost everyone is taking advantage of this free downloading option. “An estimated 95% of music available online is being downloaded illegally” (Swash). Although I do feel bad that I no longer purchase music from the artist straight from iTunes, it is a lot easier to download the music directly into my iTunes account for free. The millennial generation most likely makes up most of the 95% considering we were raised on technology used to illegally download artists’ music.
Even though I am part of that 95% I do feel that illegally downloading music is going to and has already taken a huge toll on artists as well as the music industry. There’s numerous music streaming services available for users to consume their music and all of them vary in different ways. These services range all the way from the price of the subscription to the amount of control that it gives the user. With so many companies in the industry of music streaming services, Vevo is now considering joining the subscription industry. As of now Vevo has ads that play on the screen before the desired clip on YouTube plays however that is not nearly enough to keep a company running.
CEO Erik Huggers is currently working on a plan for Vevo that could potentially help them long-term. His plan is to transform Vevo by starting with their music video distribution. Huggers also has another plan to help give the company a kick by turning Vevo into “a specialty store that only focuses on music, that does justice to music, caters to the audience, offers curation and offers a better experience than what I would call the lowest common denominator of content” (Jarvey). The company is trying to make a push for themselves in the music industry as a business as well as trying to help out the artists that have their music on YouTube.
Continued:
ReplyDeleteVevo is not the first to realize that artists should be compensated more for the work and music that they produce. The Swedish music streaming service Spotify is largely known around the world and used by so many people. Having such a large name you would think that artists would want their music to be played on Spotify. Pop sensation Taylor Swift seems to think otherwise as she has pulled her music from the streaming service because she felt that artists should be compensated fairly for digital streaming. “Per stream payments are estimated to be $.006 and $.0084 with royalty payments for premium subscribers being naturally higher” (Nath). These royalty payments are pretty low and yet the company is still estimated to gross $1.2 billion just from its 10 million paying subscribers. Artists have followed the bold actions by Swift and replicated them in hopes of change for the future in terms of digital streaming.
Popular artists tend to make a substantial amount of money from their music, record labels, and if they go on tour. However the revenue has the potential to be so much more but streaming has a tendency to interfere with that.
Jarvey, Natalie. “Vevo Considering Music Video Subscription Service.” The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 20016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Nath, Trevir. "How Pandora And Spotify Pay Artists." Investopedia. N.p.,
Swash, Rosie. "Online Piracy: 95% of Music Downloads Are Illegal." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.