Taylor Swift’s 1989 did not appear on Spotify upon release, though the lead single “Shake It Off” was available. Then the shocking news came down Monday that her entire discography was pulled from the Spotify network, singles and all. The impact of Taylor Swift removing her music from Spotify, especially after she just revealed herself as the biggest artist of the last decade-plus, cannot be overstated.
The one last bastion of revenue for music that has remained however has been live concerts. Ticket prices have remained strong and allowed artists that would otherwise not be able to make a living playing music to continue the pursuit and help pay for recording production. But a new company and a new service could inject the subscription dilemma into the live concert space as well.
For the better part of 15 years, country music Outlaw David Allan Coe recorded for Columbia Records and worked with Hall of Fame producer Billy Sherrill on timeless recordings that have become treasured releases in country music. However obtaining these records had become difficult to impossible over the years as they subsequently went out-of-print.
Today (9-4) at a press conference in Chicago ahead of the very first concert of Garth’s world tour and his official comeback from retirement, he announced that he was going digital, and doing so by launching his own digital company. Garth has launched GhostTunes LLC, which allows the artist to select how their songs or albums are sold.
The underlying problem is that free music is quickly becoming seen as an inalienable right for all Americans, and all of the world’s consumers, if we haven’t reached that dangerous plateau already. And the even more dangerous step of expecting musicians to pay to have their music heard is becoming more of a reality every day—evidenced by this Super Bowl Halftime news.
So before we get too engrossed in this idea, let’s all just appreciate that it’s just an idea. This is sport; a discussion point. So don’t get too exercised about how I’m an idiot, and it would never happen. It doesn’t have to be NPR. But make no mistake, if anyone, NPR or not, offered a sustainable streaming service, the demand would be there.
On Wednesday, The United States House of Representatives’ House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet took up the issue in an open hearing, specifically taking up the matter of music licensing Under Title 17 – Part 2 of the current law. Multiple members of the independent music community came to testify, including Rosanne Cash.
Here’s there long and short of the current problem: Just like iTunes, Beats, Amazon, your local school district, and your refrigerator repair company, YouTube has decided it’s getting into the digital streaming music service too. However the problem is YouTube is not really set up like its burgeoning rivals to make the best of the current music streaming paradigm.
the simple fact remains, radio is still the most widely used format for music listeners, confirmed by a new study by Edison Research. And even more importantly, radio is where listeners go to discover new music. 75% of listeners use radio to keep up-to-date with music, while only 20% use SiriusXM, and only 18% use Spotify. Radio’s days might be numbered, but right now, it still rules the roost.
Oh how independent music nerds love to puff their chest out and pontificate about what’s wrong with the mainstream music industry, how it’s creatively bankrupt and was too slow to evolve to the onset of the digital format. What none of these nerds and experts seem to be willing to recognizing though is that over the last 18 months, music sales have increased. So what happened?