First: I don't believe the numbers if they include downloads. But if we're just talking streams, I buy it.
Blessing and a curse. No way could an artist have amassed 50,000,000 plays of a track pre-streaming. That's unprecedented levels of access to a consumer fan base. It's also an open market -- the radio, the way music was primarily moved to the masses, is a gated entry market. You have to get in before you can gain from it and the gate has been getting narrower and harder to pass through for decades now. DJs have lost all control over what they play, it's in the hands of the few. Not so, the streaming and download marketplaces.
And remember: US terrestrial radio has always paid zero dollars to performers. Streaming pays performs as well as writers.
Streaming is also precise and fair. Sampled payout systems like ASCAP and SOCAN and BMI pay zero dollars to the little people. Streaming pays out exactly to who gets played and when. That kind of tracking and renumeration accuracy is really nice.
Pick your poison, kids. Anyone pining for the old days is looking at it with very rose coloured glasses -- it wasn't better, it was arguably worse.
Blessing and a curse. No way could an artist have amassed 50,000,000 plays of a track pre-streaming. That's unprecedented levels of access to a consumer fan base. It's also an open market -- the radio, the way music was primarily moved to the masses, is a gated entry market. You have to get in before you can gain from it and the gate has been getting narrower and harder to pass through for decades now. DJs have lost all control over what they play, it's in the hands of the few. Not so, the streaming and download marketplaces.
And remember: US terrestrial radio has always paid zero dollars to performers. Streaming pays performs as well as writers.
Streaming is also precise and fair. Sampled payout systems like ASCAP and SOCAN and BMI pay zero dollars to the little people. Streaming pays out exactly to who gets played and when. That kind of tracking and renumeration accuracy is really nice.
Pick your poison, kids. Anyone pining for the old days is looking at it with very rose coloured glasses -- it wasn't better, it was arguably worse.
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