How Spotify Has Changed The Music Industry
Spotify is a music streaming service that provides listeners with unlimited access to their favorite artists, bands, and more recently, podcasts. Spotify is also a music platform that introduces the listener to discovering new music in the simplest ways possible. Features including a “Discover Weekly” playlist and Spotify radio suggestions are some of the many ways the streaming service helps the listener broaden their music taste and find new artists to enjoy. Spotify created a new way of thinking about music. People now associate certain songs with specific playlists and these playlists are a representation of everyday emotions, occasions, activities, and personal memories.
Spotify revolutionized the way listeners appreciate their music and discover new artists and songs. However, several artists, whether independent or represented by a label, were boycotting Spotify because of its’ unfair payment to writers, artists, and producers. Taylor Swift is commonly known for removing her past albums off of Spotify after her release of album 1989. She felt as if her work wasn’t being fairly compensated. Swift stated, “And I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.” Spotify is a streaming service that allows anyone to listen to millions of songs for free. Spotify Free and Spotify Premium are the two main subscription plans that are available. Spotify Free is appealing to the listener because they can enjoy any kind of music for several hours and only get interrupted every 10th song with short advertisements.
Currently, Spotify is changing their ways. Artists are being paid what they deserve, and the streaming service is the leader of paying customers at 130 million, while its’ rivals Apple Music and Amazon Music are only at 60 and 55 million. However, these competitors are relentless, and the leaderboard could change at any moment. At the end of 2019, Spotify took a loss in revenue, but the beginning of 2020 looked promising. Now as the end of 2020 is slowly approaching, Spotify is looking at around 8.5 billion for an end of year total. While most businesses are struggling during this time, Spotify is trying to help artists and musicians in any way possible. Recently, Spotify has allowed listeners to pay artists directly through the streaming site. Artists can also encourage fans to donate to certain charities or those who are in need through their profile pages.
What’s next for Spotify in 2021? We will have to wait and see.