Extremely well-written and argued as always. I quit Spotify a year ago for many of the same reasons, though I couldn't have detailed them the way you do. My problem is that nothing else really compares for ease of use. Apple Music is, well, Apple, and they lost me when the killed the old iTunes. YouTube Music isn't that easy to use, in my experience, and is far less complete. I miss Spotify, even though I know that they screw me and other indie musicians. Then again, I expect NOTHING from them, so that's easy. I was actually getting ready to sign up again when I read this. Now I don't know WHAT to do!!
Thanks?
PS - Jealous of all the comments you get.
PPS - I will be in New York City starting Friday...any chance you'll be down over the following week and weekend? I'd love to see you.
Hi David, thanks as always for taking time to comment in-between your travels. You are quite right nothing else compares to Spotify's ease of use and I celebrate that in my article. Hold on till the weekend and maybe I will have another option for you, or at least a suggested one.
Unfortunately, no to NYC. I had a great trip there just two weeks back but I am in packing hell for next week, not helped by the heatwave! ENjoy your time in what I still maintain is the best city in the world - though Kolkatta is better for pure energy,
Capitalism has its problems. That's a separate issue.
Audio business cards, on the other hand, should never have been seen as the panacea of musicians. It's an idea that I've found ridiculous for many, many decades, but it still continues to hold sway to an absurd degree.
I remember hearing that Lil Nas X or someone else maybe admitted to for making music designed to game Spotify and TikTok. Short song length, a chorus that could be clipped as a TikTok sound... bleh!
Exactly - what a depressing state of affairs. The good news is that some of the most amazing music is being made now and the demand for human-made art is stronger than ever - at least among the people I associate with.
In the old days my music was curated by real people instead of a bot . My poor hearing often makes streamed music unlistenable. There's one advantage... I can stream something I "might" like and then I will be buy the real CD to enjoy.
Nice one, Tony! As I pointed out when I shared this on FB: it should be considered for NYT Op Ed and it's certainly a counter-argument to Mr. Lefsetz. I certainly have made my share of playlists (mammoth fading summer vibes / summations of my 4.5 years at college radio, a collection of favorite Thom Bell arrangements & productions being my faves) but for some reason streaming & Spotify have never been my natural go-to's. Maybe it's often having underground commutes where streaming is generally useless but more likely, I still have the "ownership" thing whether it's records, cd's, tapes or thousands of lossy MP3's that fit on my phone and hard drive. This article has actually been helpful in terms of best practices to curate on a Spotify though I'll probably continue using mostly to mostly figure out a P&C line for work rather than extended listening.
That being said, I remember such sales pitches when Spotify first came to the U.S. to the effect of it being radio that finally pays the artist. I thought this pitch was an insult given how conceptually different Spotify is from radio. But this, along with something you said "Indeed, it would be interesting to know what percentage of Spotify stream-time is actively chosen by music-hungry consumers and what percentage is simply absorbed via the platform’s playlists by passive consumers." also brings to mind payment tiers that could be helpful to be put in place. One tier would be a play that's the result of not being on-demand, that's the product of an algorithm and passive listening. The other payout tier, tracks that get played on-demand should be a greater rate. Ok so not the same rate as someone buying a physical product or a digital file for personal storage for that matter. However it should certainly be something between a passive play and physical ownership, leaning towards the ownership end. I don't know what that formula would be but it has to be better than what's currently going on for the artists.
Hey Patrick, appreciate the detailed observation. And you know what, considering complex Spotfy's royalties already are, your suggestion:
"One tier would be a play that's the result of not being on-demand, that's the product of an algorithm and passive listening. The other payout tier, tracks that get played on-demand should be a greater rate."
Sound like one possible small solution. I don't know how that impacts on a Release Radar which seems like a middle ground, but the important thing is to have the discussion.
There are some other points i'll hold till part 2, but deffo appreciate this one to start.
Great post Tony. The Spotify CEO’s crass comment about content costing nothing to produce might be a turning point.
If anyone from @Substack is reading - I second the call to make it easier to embed streaming services other than Spotify. I’ve been using Songwhip to provide a choice of streaming links to the albums I write about, but that’s closing.
Thanks Ian. Personally I wonder if the ability to embed Spotify playlists but not other platforms' here on Substack is NOT down to Substack but the platforms themselves not looking into i t, certainly Substack should make it as easy as possible. I do find I can load Apple Podcasts' playlist of all my shows, per this current post, but as I don't have a subscription to Apple Music I have not been able to go further than sharing an individual song and possibly it's only a preview at that. Cheers.
I don’t always stream, but when I do, I’ve used Apple Music all along. I’ve never cared for Spotify. I wish Substack would allow Apple to be embedded. Kinda odd they don’t.
This is the first thing I’ve read that makes a cogent argument against Spotify - almost any other post or screed I’ve seen has been driven by knee-jerk emotion over facts.
Hear hear!!!! Spotify is a sick and twisted drug. I've been a junkie on it for years. Indie musicians like us continue to be screwed, lured by the potential of striking gold. And we spend more money on making our music than profiting from it. As a friend once told me, digging for "gold" rarely affords anyone the riches of finding "gold," whereas the people who sell picks and shovels to find the "gold" make the real money.
A) Fantastic analogy at the end. There's a song in it!
B) And here's the dichotomy: I really enjoy when YOU share playlists attached to your 'Rants.' The ability to make a form of mixtape and let everyone you want to have it, have it, is fantastic, and Spotify nailed that. It's.... everything else I wrote about. Cheers. And happy creativity.
This is a great post and has really got me thinking about jumping ship. Thanks so much 🙌
There’s a catch though. As a music producer and curator, I feel obliged to use Spotify because most listeners do.
I don’t advocate it or recommend anyone to use it. Looking forward to the next popular playing method, beyond streaming.
Extremely well-written and argued as always. I quit Spotify a year ago for many of the same reasons, though I couldn't have detailed them the way you do. My problem is that nothing else really compares for ease of use. Apple Music is, well, Apple, and they lost me when the killed the old iTunes. YouTube Music isn't that easy to use, in my experience, and is far less complete. I miss Spotify, even though I know that they screw me and other indie musicians. Then again, I expect NOTHING from them, so that's easy. I was actually getting ready to sign up again when I read this. Now I don't know WHAT to do!!
Thanks?
PS - Jealous of all the comments you get.
PPS - I will be in New York City starting Friday...any chance you'll be down over the following week and weekend? I'd love to see you.
Hi David, thanks as always for taking time to comment in-between your travels. You are quite right nothing else compares to Spotify's ease of use and I celebrate that in my article. Hold on till the weekend and maybe I will have another option for you, or at least a suggested one.
Unfortunately, no to NYC. I had a great trip there just two weeks back but I am in packing hell for next week, not helped by the heatwave! ENjoy your time in what I still maintain is the best city in the world - though Kolkatta is better for pure energy,
Capitalism has its problems. That's a separate issue.
Audio business cards, on the other hand, should never have been seen as the panacea of musicians. It's an idea that I've found ridiculous for many, many decades, but it still continues to hold sway to an absurd degree.
Thanks Rod. Can I ask for a definition of an audio business card? Cheers, Tony.
Yes, recordings that you've made to promote yourself/selves: LPs, CDs, etc...
I keep seeing musicians say they are making music they don’t like in order to please the streaming gods. That’s an unsustainable situation.
I remember hearing that Lil Nas X or someone else maybe admitted to for making music designed to game Spotify and TikTok. Short song length, a chorus that could be clipped as a TikTok sound... bleh!
Exactly - what a depressing state of affairs. The good news is that some of the most amazing music is being made now and the demand for human-made art is stronger than ever - at least among the people I associate with.
In the old days my music was curated by real people instead of a bot . My poor hearing often makes streamed music unlistenable. There's one advantage... I can stream something I "might" like and then I will be buy the real CD to enjoy.
Well said! screw Spotify. However, I am sure that starving musician is the late, lovely Frank Zappa.
Oh yeah! I figured someone would point that out. It seemed a lovely final image to include.
Nice one, Tony! As I pointed out when I shared this on FB: it should be considered for NYT Op Ed and it's certainly a counter-argument to Mr. Lefsetz. I certainly have made my share of playlists (mammoth fading summer vibes / summations of my 4.5 years at college radio, a collection of favorite Thom Bell arrangements & productions being my faves) but for some reason streaming & Spotify have never been my natural go-to's. Maybe it's often having underground commutes where streaming is generally useless but more likely, I still have the "ownership" thing whether it's records, cd's, tapes or thousands of lossy MP3's that fit on my phone and hard drive. This article has actually been helpful in terms of best practices to curate on a Spotify though I'll probably continue using mostly to mostly figure out a P&C line for work rather than extended listening.
That being said, I remember such sales pitches when Spotify first came to the U.S. to the effect of it being radio that finally pays the artist. I thought this pitch was an insult given how conceptually different Spotify is from radio. But this, along with something you said "Indeed, it would be interesting to know what percentage of Spotify stream-time is actively chosen by music-hungry consumers and what percentage is simply absorbed via the platform’s playlists by passive consumers." also brings to mind payment tiers that could be helpful to be put in place. One tier would be a play that's the result of not being on-demand, that's the product of an algorithm and passive listening. The other payout tier, tracks that get played on-demand should be a greater rate. Ok so not the same rate as someone buying a physical product or a digital file for personal storage for that matter. However it should certainly be something between a passive play and physical ownership, leaning towards the ownership end. I don't know what that formula would be but it has to be better than what's currently going on for the artists.
Hey Patrick, appreciate the detailed observation. And you know what, considering complex Spotfy's royalties already are, your suggestion:
"One tier would be a play that's the result of not being on-demand, that's the product of an algorithm and passive listening. The other payout tier, tracks that get played on-demand should be a greater rate."
Sound like one possible small solution. I don't know how that impacts on a Release Radar which seems like a middle ground, but the important thing is to have the discussion.
There are some other points i'll hold till part 2, but deffo appreciate this one to start.
Tony
Great post Tony. The Spotify CEO’s crass comment about content costing nothing to produce might be a turning point.
If anyone from @Substack is reading - I second the call to make it easier to embed streaming services other than Spotify. I’ve been using Songwhip to provide a choice of streaming links to the albums I write about, but that’s closing.
Thanks Ian. Personally I wonder if the ability to embed Spotify playlists but not other platforms' here on Substack is NOT down to Substack but the platforms themselves not looking into i t, certainly Substack should make it as easy as possible. I do find I can load Apple Podcasts' playlist of all my shows, per this current post, but as I don't have a subscription to Apple Music I have not been able to go further than sharing an individual song and possibly it's only a preview at that. Cheers.
Hell of a persuasive argument, my friend.
Thank you.
I don’t always stream, but when I do, I’ve used Apple Music all along. I’ve never cared for Spotify. I wish Substack would allow Apple to be embedded. Kinda odd they don’t.
Great piece.
Thanks Michael, see my response to Ian up above. I think some other SUbstackers should reach out to SS about this.
This is the first thing I’ve read that makes a cogent argument against Spotify - almost any other post or screed I’ve seen has been driven by knee-jerk emotion over facts.
Thanks Hugo, I know you have exacting standards. Feel free to share with the masses.
It's easy to resist things when you have no money!
Hear hear!!!! Spotify is a sick and twisted drug. I've been a junkie on it for years. Indie musicians like us continue to be screwed, lured by the potential of striking gold. And we spend more money on making our music than profiting from it. As a friend once told me, digging for "gold" rarely affords anyone the riches of finding "gold," whereas the people who sell picks and shovels to find the "gold" make the real money.
A) Fantastic analogy at the end. There's a song in it!
B) And here's the dichotomy: I really enjoy when YOU share playlists attached to your 'Rants.' The ability to make a form of mixtape and let everyone you want to have it, have it, is fantastic, and Spotify nailed that. It's.... everything else I wrote about. Cheers. And happy creativity.
I dislike and have never used any music streaming services. You have given me even more reasons to dislike them with this piece.
I admire you for resisting. I'll get into that a little more in my follow-up.