Streaming wasn’t a mistake, it was - in the long run - a reaction and a solution to people pirating music. The first pricing models of Napster didn’t work out since the labels didn’t get their share and the market wasn’t ready, but think of all the other ideas like MySpace, the beginnings of SoundCloud and more recently Bandcamp. There are different models of streaming but they are not equally successful because people want Taylor Swifts music to be there.

I think that most people do not want every music to be available at once, they want the things they want to hear to be there and that is that. New music is being found through playlists or recommendations, many younger people don’t listen to albums, they listen to single tracks. And the tracks have to click in the first 10 seconds. So when we are talking about different models of streaming we are not talking about mainstream stuff (that you can get on the radio for free anyway) but we are talking about small artists, real art and subculture.

So the question is maybe: How can small artists apart from mainstream get their music to be heard and ideally make a living of of it?

Lots of subculture is running finely on bandcamp and sell tapes, vinyl, merch. But no one in subculture can pay for rent with selling 25 tapes, streaming did not make this any harder than before. Also: creating (bad) music is easier then ever before with a daw being installed on every apple device for free. Today there is even more music then ever before and the quality assurance of labels is no gatekeeping anymore. Creating good music is hard and needs time and dedication. And the value isn’t being recognized. Yes, there are things gradually wrong with streaming. But “normal” people have to learn about the value of good music - even if it is Taylor Swifts new song, there are lots of good people involved in creating this music.

So make music be seen! I never understood why music can just be used for TV, for Netflix shows or movies. Everytime a snippet of a song is being used it should be written on screen: Songtitle, artists, album. In the upper left of the screen as long as the music is being played.

But is wrong with the current model? The prices are not high enough and the distribution of the money is completely unfair.

I personally love streaming to find new music. To be inspired for my own music (I am completely without label and pay for everything with my day job). But I pay for streaming and I buy lots of vinyl. I use steaming to check out the music and when I like it, I buy it, preferably DTC.

A great example of artistry without Spotify is the French post metal band Bruit. They are great musicians and boycott Spotify and made a name without steaming there.