There are plenty of services that stream music, but Pandora and Spotify are easily the most popular. Pandora Radio launched in 2005 and Spotify hit the web in 2008. Even though these streaming services have not been around very long, they have become some of the most popular ways to listen to music.
One problem the music industry has recently is people have been illegally downloading music instead of buying it. This has greatly affected the music industry and some artists have lost profit because of this. Torrent sites pop up on the web all the time and people get more and more music for free. Mathew Dugan, a sophomore, said, "I haven't bought any music for at least six years."
Spotify and Pandora have somewhat benefited the music industry in the struggle to make money. Spotify allows you to use their service for free, but ads pop-up in between songs and the service is very limited on your phone. If you buy Spotify Premium, you have to pay a monthly fee, but there are no ads and you have complete access to the service on your mobile device.
Corbin Whited, a junior, said, "I used to have Spotify Premium and it was completely worth it."
How much the artist is paid depends on how popular their music is on Spotify. However, the record label they are associated with ends up getting decent amount of the money before it gets to the artist.
Pandora works in a similar way in terms of paying musicians. Pandora radio station is free, but you can pay a monthly fee to get rid of ads. Pandora pays a company called Sound Exchange and the record labels are paid through Sound Exchange. The artists are then given a percentage of the profits by their record labels. The artists do not make the amount of profit from Spotify and Pandora that they would if a person actually bought their albums, but any sort of profit still benefits them.
Money is not the only thing Spotify and Pandora do to help benefit musicians. When browsing Spotify and Pandora, you will notice your music suggestions. These suggestions are based on artists you already listen to. Music suggestions help listeners branch out their taste in music and help other bands gets recognized by people.
Cody Martin, a sophomore, said, music suggestions are actually kind of accurate, but they're not always correct."
Overall, Spotify and Pandora are not the most effective ways for bands to make their money, but they do try to help in other ways. Buying music is nowhere near as popular as it used to be, so musicians may have to look for other ways to make money off their music. Streaming music through the Internet is becoming more and more popular every year. While it may not be as financially beneficial as selling CDs, artists also care about people listening to their music and steaming services greatly benefit them in that department.
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mseyler@ramapo.edu
