Apple Music. Deezer. Spotify. Tidal. YouTube Music. These are some of the most popular music streaming platforms in the 21st century, and rightfully so. These platforms have revolutionized how we listen to music. The rapid invention of new technology over the last century has led us to this accessible, reliable and easy way of listening to our favorite songs. In the past 50 years, music has been played on walkmans, MP3 players, iPods and finally on our phones, and now, we are in the new age of digital music. 

A new era

One of the earliest recorded acts of music piracy was by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1770s. Mozart transcribed and published Gregorio Allegri’s “Miserere mei Deus,” which was owned by the Vatican. This is similar to modern-day music leaks, where unreleased songs are released with the artist’s consent. As a result of new technology and easier access to music via file sharing, piracy boomed during the new digital era. In fact, many pirates didn’t even know their actions were illegal. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, file-sharing websites were popularized, leading to millions of pirated content and many lawsuits from music artists. Most notable was a website called Napster, which allowed for peer-to-peer file sharing. To download a specific song, users only had to search for it and click on someone who was hosting it to get the download. Napster was shut down within two years, as it encouraged piracy. However, it was later relaunched as a more legitimate music streaming service, instead of a music-sharing service. 

Spotify first emerged as something similar to Napster. It illegally stole music from third-party sources, specifically The Pirate Bay — one of the most infamous piracy sites of all time. However, in 2008, they convinced music labels to license music to them and removed the unlicensed music. In contrast, iTunes started out as an efficient way to maintain one’s digital music library. iTunes’ evolution to become a music marketplace was spurred by Steve Jobs, who wanted to stop music piracy. To combat this, he got music labels to license their music to iTunes, so it could then be bought on its digital marketplace. In contrast to iTunes, Apple Music was inspired by Spotify — it uses a subscription-based payment plan while iTunes requires users to buy songs and media individually. Over the past decade, Spotify and Apple Music have grown rapidly in size due to their convenience as the U.S. has begun to crack down on piracy. 

Spotify’s free plan allows a user to listen to music with some restrictions. This includes being forced to listen to ads, having limited song skips and Spotify forcing you to listen to recommended songs. 

“My parents pay for my plan, and I guess if $10.99 is the price to pay for ‘salvation’ from irritating interruptions, then so be it,” junior Sophia Zambrano said.

Under a free plan, when someone plays a Spotify playlist on a mobile device, the order in which you hear songs is randomized. Additionally, Spotify occasionally promotes other similar songs that are not in the playlist. 

“It’s frustrating because when I see the songs that I play most of the month, they are never the ones in my actual playlist,” sophomore Raegan Reddick said.

Spotify’s algorithm recently caused some outrage on social media, as it was favoring certain artists, like Sabrina Carpenter, over smaller artists. The algorithm recommends music artists of a similar genre who are at “intermediate popularity levels,” meaning that a music listener who likes megastar Taylor Swift would be recommended Carpenter’s music, but not vice versa. This algorithm limits exposure for smaller artists who struggle to attain the status of intermediate popularity, making it harder for them to gain visibility as Spotify keeps promoting musicians who are already somewhat popular to keep listeners.

“The limited skips annoy me because I’m stuck listening to a song [that] I don’t want to listen to,” Reddick said.

The highest paying music streaming platforms are Tidal and Napster, which on average have a payout of more than one cent per stream. These platforms are nowhere near as popular as the most used streaming platforms, meaning that a majority of streams are less than one cent, so smaller artists frequently struggle to earn a substantial income. This means that they often have to rely on other sources of income, such as second jobs, leaving less time to focus on growing their music career. 

The odds are against newer artists and prospective musicians, like sophomore Omaz Omeini, who doubts that she will be able to achieve her dreams of becoming a classical musician.

“It’s just not an achievable dream for many, especially when it comes to classical music. It takes a certain level of skill in order to be recognized in such a big industry. I honestly think that it’s simply a dream for me.“ Omeini said.

Social media

Many small artists today post about their music on social media to reach a wider audience. The most popular platform is the short-form video platform TikTok, where videos are more likely to gain traction than long-form platforms like YouTube. For example, in 2020, singer-songwriter Claire Rosinkranz created a TikTok including a snippet of her song, “Backyard Boy.” After only a year and a half, her song had amassed one billion streams, giving Rosinkranz tons of new fans. These types of viral sensations only happen when enough viewers engage with the video, such as liking, commenting, watching a video for a prolonged period of time, or making a video using the artist’s song. 

Social media also helps artists build a brand identity and fan base, which helps them gain listeners. This is done by creating more genuine connections as social media allows people to interact with music artists, compared to just the relationship between the listener and artist. The positive effects of social media for music artists, especially small ones, are too good to miss out on. 

Don’t let small artists fade away

Streaming platforms’ low payout rates are not enough for small artists to sustain themselves, forcing artists to compromise on making music in order to get income from another source. ⁤Music streaming platforms aren’t doing enough to promote smaller artists, either, which decreases the chances of those artists being discovered. ⁤⁤Without adequate exposure and financial support, many talented musicians may give up on their passion entirely, limiting the diversity and creativity in the music industry. ⁤⁤That is why supporting smaller artists in any way possible is important.