Today’s music market is controlled by superstars. Never have so many people listened to so few artists. The top 1% of artists now take in more than the bottom 99% combined (Rockonomic, A. Krueger). That’s the irony of the streaming era. You’d think that people having access to more music would broaden their horizon — that’s not the case at all. What’s happened is that the vast majority of people end up listening to music served up to them by big multinational corporations trying to maximise profits. Of course, there are bands out there breaking through with original music like the Fontaines D.C. And it would be unfair to say that there aren’t people out there that really care about new/original music. That being said, I don’t think there has ever been a more concentrated music industry than there is today — and that’s not good long term.
Did you know that a lot of the biggest playlists on Spotify are actually owned by big multinational record labels?
Gandekko
Did you know that a lot of the biggest playlists on Spotify are actually owned by big multinational record labels? And that a spot on those playlists is worth big money? Whose music do you think they are going to put on these playlists?
The worry we have is that record labels have cracked the streaming code. There is a lot of money in high dopamine, "stream-on-repeat" music — and that’s where the money is going. A lot of industries have become winner takes all markets, and we fear that the music industry is going down the same route.