A democratic anarchy
As a constant gig-goer, I personally love having Spotify around. Napster, 8tracks, Soundcloud, Pandora, have obviously played a big role in music streaming, but Spotify wins all of it hands down. With a database of millions of songs, a radio feature which creates a random playlist of songs chosen based on specified genres and selected artists. This is indeed a dream come true for poor souls like me who can’t afford to buy every album of my favorite artist. (Let’s not even talk about illegal downloading)
Although Spotify seems to be a great promotional tool for unsigned bands and popular bands that are up to date, I found out that there’s this constant debate about musicians not getting paid enough, rumour has it that they are only paid a penny for a stream. It is also said to benefit the music labels rather than the musicians themselves. What about the musicians themselves? How does Spotify’s expansion affect them?
In this video, Moby describes the digital presence that we live in as a democratic anarchy, he finds it compelling that there is this certain kind of chaos and uncertainty that Spotify has put out for the future of music.
The thing with Spotify, which has maybe already been said and which applies to many other streaming services, is that you get to listen to new music everyday, music that inspires you, that gets you moving. I’ve found a couple of aspiring musicians earlier on and it has certainly got me thinking to get their albums. It’s as simple as that, if you value music, you should just buy them. I don’t see a reason why people should be making such a big controversy about the expansion of spotify. I’d like to agree with what Moby said about moving with the digital presence, and that he’s doing it for the love of music and for people to love his music. If streaming his music on spotify is the way to go to touch a hundred hearts with his songs, then that’s the way to go!!