Has Spotify Killed Rock ? : Innovation, Independence and the Modern Music Industry
With the sudden news of Bob Dylan selling his entire catalogue to Universal Music, with one of the main reasons being its streaming revenue, it begs the question, has streaming and more importantly Spotify, killed rock music?
Well first off lets look at the figures that Spotify have released as part of 2020 Wrapped. If we look at the top fives streamed worldwide this year (pictured below) none of them fall into the rock genre from The Weeknd's Blinding Lights to The Box by Roddy Rich, the list is shows that the average modern Spotify listener is not interested in the rock genre.
But of course, this data only scratches the surface of what is a wider problem for the music industry and especially for genre's as varied and diverse as such as rock music.
The average artist earns less than than £0.003-0.005 from each stream, according to data from Digital Music News, and when your a rock band this can of course even less per member and then you have to account the individual rules of your label. You might think to yourself at this point why haven't more people left Spotify, well the answer lies simply in the creation and retention of fan-base.
A lot of independent artists and bands rely on Spotify's recommendation algorithm as one of the main ways to gain fans. Gone are the days when artists such as Bob Dylan have gained recognition slowly through live shows and merch, now its down to your social media presence and your Spotify. For instance, despite Metallica's frequent legal battles with streaming sites like Napster in the early years of music streaming they have been forced to put their catalogue online in recent years in order to keep their fan-base intact and the record company happy, as the majority of their listener and potential new fans now consume music via streaming.
But Spotify is not ultimately the worst of the streaming services. After all, compared to the business practices of YouTube when it comes to the music side of its business, including forcing labels such as 4AD to sign contracts to add their music to the YouTube Music streaming service or face removal of their video's from YouTube, they have at least allowed artists such as Taylor Swift to remove their back catalogue during disputes with their respective labels. And lets not forget that Spotify was purportedly set up by its founder, Daniel Ek, to offer an alternative to pirating music, as was popular in the 90's and early 2000's, where the artist lost out on all royalties, even on the pittance they have been payed now.
Most rock music and especially in the alt and metal sub-genres are part of indie labels. These labels such as Better Noise Music or Partisan Records, operate usually through their own distribution networks, contracts and marketing practices and this provides a lot of creative freedom. Better Noise in particular have a keen focus on analytics and using data from not just Spotify but many other services including Shazam as a means of making their artists reach as many people as they can. As their CEO Allen Kovac was keen to point out in an article in Forbes back in 2019 “It's the artists that adapt to a long-term strategy that are ultimately going to be in the touring business, the merch business and the streaming business.'
But this freedom can come with a huge price.
The collapse of touring and festivals during the Coronavirus pandemic meant that many bands have had to rely on the income from streaming and the creation of online content. Spotify, along with the whole of the streaming industry as a whole has inadvertently made music even more of a game of 'last man standing,' as many of these bands just aren't earning enough from streaming to justify making music if they only rely on the service. Much like with all the creative arts, now more than ever if you want to survive in the modern music industry you have to be sharp, innovative and committed. In the original lockdown this was perpetuated by the collapse of merch distribution. Many of the finest rock bands in the world including Iron Maiden, Kiss and AC/DC rely on merch as a regular revenue stream in place of touring.
This cocktail of factors has lead to many seeking an alternative to streaming. Bandcamp, Patreon and Crowdfunding have been vital tools for artists and bands who seek both independence and creative control. For The Classic Crime, one of America's best pop-rock bands, Kickstarter has meant that 3 of their 6 studio albums have now been solely funded by crowdfunding and only this week Radkey, a band that has been slowly gaining attention from performances at major festivals around the world has successfully funded the recording of their debut album almost solely on Kickstarter. Bandcamp is known to have entire days where all the profits from music downloads and merch go solely to the artist and Patreon has a generous tier system which takes a reasonable commission depending on which tier you sign up to. Despite how much backlash the Epic Store model of online distribution has been subject to in the games industry (where the creators get a substantial share in the amount of money the consumer pays for their product), when it's been utilized by the music industry it is helping the modern musician to survive.
Thanks to the efforts of companies like these it seems then that Spotify has not yet killed rock, or indeed music itself, but if left unchecked it may be part of it's downfall.
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