The music industry is much like any other entertainment industry – there are many myths that can cause people to avoid it or dive in without a second thought. These myths are consistent, but can be easily dispelled if you spend a bit of time in the industry. Today, most of the biggest myths in music originate and revolve around streaming music. Streaming is the number one way that music is disseminated today, but shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Read on to see the truth behind the biggest and most consistent music industry myths.
The Business is Booming
In 2019, music drew in over $20 billion. This was the highest number in more than a decade, but due to the facts of inflation, it was also the lowest. in 2003, the industry drew almost the same number, but a dollar in 2003 went a lot further than a dollar in 2019. So while many will say that the music industry is stable, it only looks that way if you don’t factor in the ways that money changes over time.
New Artists Aren’t Earning Via Streams
In fact, more and more artists are making a full living from streaming. There are hundreds of streaming musicians who struggle to make ends meet – and this is an issue – but the fact of the matter is that there are more musicians on platforms like Spotify than ever before. The sheer number of Spotify musicians has increased nearly 50% since 2019. It’s true that, like most art industries, there are small numbers of artists making massive amounts of money. But it’s important to recognize that you don’t need to be Kanye or Ed Sheeran to make a living via music. The fact is that the average musician on Spotify can receive over $50k a year.
Spotify is the Biggest Platform
This is a technical mistake, but an important one to recognize. Spotify has certainly taken a large portion of the market space, but it is not the end-all-be-all of streaming. Spotify has nearly a third of the market share compared to competitors – but this is only in terms of subscribers. In terms of music library, SoundCloud is nearly 4 times larger. And if you look at it in terms of user numbers in general, then YouTube Music has more than 2 billion users a month. Spotify continues to be the best for artists in term of pay-out, but don’t forget about all of your options.