Streaming: The future of our musical generation

Streaming is not only the answer but the future of our current music industry. It’s becoming the key way that listeners digest and pay for music meaning that artists material more accessible to a global market than ever before. According to the BPI, combined takings from streaming, downloads, physical sales and licensing for use in films, TV and computer games rose 5.1% to £926m hitting a five year high. Streaming alone bought in £274m and it’s thought that in 2017 it will overtake revenues from physical sales. With so many ways to promote your music online what are the benefits of each platform and what are some of the things you need to watch out for?

Spotify

Having been around for the longest, Spotify is one of the most established and trusted of the streaming partners. It has an ever-growing international audience and h2 relationships with artists, labels and curators. It’s playlists carry as much, if not more weight than many of today’s radio stations and deliver an instant connection to new audiences. Although it is thought that Spotify pay less to artists than many of the other platforms, having your music on there is essential if you are wanting to reach a global audience.

Benefits:

• 30 million songs in its library reaching 58 countries
• Available for free
• Slick playlists and well-targeted song suggestions
• Pay 70 % of its revenue to content owners
• Intuitive search functionality that corrects minor spelling mistakes

Things you need to know:

• If you don’t have a label, then you’ll have to go through an artist aggregator or distributor
• Unlike AppleMusic, Spotify don’t focus on artist exclusives
• Many artists have withheld albums from the streaming service, with many citing the low rates of royalties as the reason why
• Upload takes on average five business days

Apple Music

Having launched in 2015, Apple Music reported in December that it now has 20 million paying subscribers. With the benefits of a loyal Apple following behind its brand, the platform seems to be overcoming its initial glitches to become one of the fastest growing streaming partners. It’s Beats 1 free radio station headed up by Zane Lowe has become an influential voice for new and breaking artists.

Benefits:

• 30 million songs, with 45 million in the iTunes Library itself so 15 million of those are unavailable to stream
• Available on Android as well as iOS devices
• Big focus on artist exclusives with the likes of Drake, Chance The Rapper, Skrillex and Sampha all working closely with them
• Curation is at the forefront of Apple Music with their playlisting trusted and diverse

Things you need to know:

• There isn’t a free tier available
• When it first launched AppleMusic came under tough backlash from critics who found the platform hard to use, it was littered with bugs and were also frustrated that it was merged with iTunes
• AppleMusic isn’t available on the web

Deezer

French born Deezer launched in 2009 and in the US in 2016. Jumping it to a crowded market place it partnered with Cricket Wireless and Sonos and Bose home audio systems. Its streaming base is slowing growing and its interface has had positive reviews. It currently holds 5 million more songs than Spotify and 10 mliion more than Tidal.

Benefits:

• 40 million songs that reach more than 180 countries
• Available for free
• The free tier boasts that it has the world’s largest streaming library which also includes 40,000 podcasts
• Currently less talked about than Spotify or Apple Music but shows huge potential growth for music promotion online

Things you need to know:

• The free tier gives you unlimited music on desktop and tablet but limits you to the ‘mixes’ and ‘Flow’ features on mobile. You also can’t download music offline, and audio quality is capped at 128 kbit/s
• Seen as the underdog to many, reviews have found it hard to find a reason why you would pick Deezer over the other major streaming platforms
• Takes 3 to 7 days for new music to be uploaded

Amazon

With two different music streaming services available, Amazon boasts Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music. One of the newest streaming services but with a solid user base because of its key Amazon audience. Its smart marketing and brand tie ins give you monthly discounts and benefits to its other services as well as offering one of the biggest music catalogues.

Benefits:

• 40 million tracks available on Amazing Music Unlimited
• If songs are missing you can buy them or upload your own
• Available on all devices and on the web
• Added benefits include shipping offers on Amazon goods, free cloud storage, Kindle eBook library
• The cheapest of the streaming services
• Links with Echo and Echo Dot technology

Things you need to know:

• Early on they had many disgruntled customers who complained that £79 had gone out of their account when they forgot to end the free Amazon Prime trial although Amazon do quickly refund it
• Takes 3 to 7 days for new music to be uploaded

Tidal

One of the most controversial streaming platforms to launch, Jay-Z’s Tidal has faced tough public and media backlash. Standing in its own unique lane with being one of the most expensive platforms to stream music it offers higher quality audio and exclusive material and has deals with some of the world’s biggest artists.

Benefits:

• 30 million songs in its library and is currently available in 31 countries
• It offers the highest-quality music streams out of all of the major streaming services offering hi-res MQA
• Pays the highest amount of royalties to artists
• Currently has the largest amount of high-profile exclusives
• Like many of the platforms, in addition to its playlists, Tidal also has a section dedicated to highlighting new artists and releases. It offers a good spread across different genres and h2 benefits for independent artist promotion
• h2 editorial curation

Things you need to know:

• Still missing key features that many of the other platforms boast
• Faced scrutiny over inflated estimated subscriber numbers
• Initially found it difficult to find its feet but now seems to be overcoming initial controversy

Google Play

With Google being one of the world’s largest and most used and respected online names, it launching a streaming facility made complete sense. Launching initially in 2013 it hasn’t, as yet, quite cut through with h2 competition from the other major streaming leaders.

Benefits:

• 35 million tracks across 58 countries
• Minimalistic and smart design
• Free option available
• Lives online and is available on android and iOS
• Linking to YouTube Red, it offers far reaching additional content and ad free streaming
• You can upload your music to a cloud to integrate with the streaming library

Things you need to know:

• Set up reported as being “irritating” and lacks stand out features that other streaming platforms currently have
• Takes 1 to 2 weeks for new music to be uploaded

Soundcloud

One of the most widely used platforms for new music discovery and reaching a wide and expansive audience. Its platform is fast moving and used by music industry A&R’s, scouts and management for finding new talent. The business model behind it has still not found its feet meaning as a streaming provider it is volatile and its future uncertain.

Benefits:

• Over 125 million tracks
• Has a much used and trusted free service with a new paid for add free service recently launched
• Can listen offline with Soundcloud Go
• Younger audience than other platforms
• Exclusive material, remixes and tracks that cannot sit on other platforms due to royalty complications

Things you need to know:

• Have only just started paying musicians and still have large loop holes in royalty payments for music that is hosted on the platform
• After months of endless meetings and confrontation they finally struck deals with major labels to hopefully secure the future of the platform
• As an artist, if you would like to upload more than 6 hours of music you will need to upgrade to one of Soundcloud’s paid monthly plans
• Immediate upload

YouTube

Billions of videos are uploaded to YouTube and with a hugely active community it is the way that many of the new generation digest video and audio. Used heavily by new artists and musicians to grow their channels, reach their fans. You can host video and music alongside one another it is currently one of the biggest and far reaching platforms for music globally.

Benefits:

• Fluid platform with an ever growing fan base and expansive music and video collection
• Alongside advertising revenues, ASCAP & other collectors also pay royalties to musicians for hosting their music on the platform
• Has become an important and buoyant platform for interacting and reaching an active audience
• Last year, YouTube said it had paid more than $1bn globally to the music industry from advertising that runs on videos
• Hosted online it is easily accessible from desktops and mobile

Things you need to know:

• YouTube does not have performance rights agreements in every country so some views do not actually count toward royalties but still bring in advertising money for YouTube
• Profits per stream is low compared to other streaming platforms
• The UK industry revealed that artists earned more from vinyl sales in 2016 than they did fromYouTube payments for viewings of music videos
• Has a large proportion of unofficial and ripped music that is hosted illegally
• Immediate upload

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