Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and Taylor Swift are three of the most influential musicians in the industry today. Each of their most recent albums, Beyoncé's Lemonade, Frank Ocean's Blonde, and Taylor Swift's 1989, have all peaked at #1 on the US Billboard 200. But, what else do they have in common? They have all chosen not to stream these albums on Spotify.
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Since its US debut in 2011, Spotify has completely altered the way people access and listen to music. By paying a monthly fee, or by using the service for free with limited features and advertisements, users have access to (almost) all of the music the the world has to offer. With a premium account, Spotify users can save all of their favorite music to their library, create playlists, and download their music so that they can listen offline, making their music accessible at all times, even when Wi-Fi is not available. Spotify even offers a personalized "Discover Weekly" playlist for each user so that they can find new artists to listen to, similar to their existing music preferences. Sounds pretty good, right? Not to everyone.
Despite the advances that Spotify has made in the music industry, making music more accessible to even more people, there is still some major opposition to the innovative streaming service. Many artists, most notably Taylor Swift, have expressed their discontent for Spotify on the basis that it does not give artists their fair share of profits. Also, since its creation, two newer streaming services, Apple Music and TIDAL, have created major competition by streaming artists that refuse to stream on Spotify: Taylor Swift and Frank Ocean, who stream their new music exclusively on Apple Music, and Beyoncé, who streams her new music exclusively on TIDAL. While this does create an issue for Spotify, it also creates an even bigger problem for those who create music and those who use and pay for these streaming services as well.
When different streaming services offer different artists and different features, people have a choice to make: which one are they going to use? Certainly people can use more than one streaming service, but it is not logical. To pay for more than one streaming service puts an unnecessary financial strain on people when listening to music is supposed to be stress free. Also, to use more than one service is just not convenient; in an age of such innovative technology where people can have all of their music in one place, why spread your music out between multiple services?
What is the solution to this growing problem? Unfortunately, there is no, one solution; the music streaming industry is a business and, like any business, there will be competition. Nonetheless, artists like Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and Taylor Swift releasing all of their music on all streaming services would definitely help the issue rather than hurt it. If every streaming service offered the same artists, users would not be coerced into spending more money for their music, choosing one service over the other, or spreading their music across multiple platforms; instead, they could fairly choose their service of choice based on the features it offers, which should be the only difference between the services, creating fair and healthy competition.
However, having their music available on all services would probably help the artists more than it would the general public. When artists stream their music, they receive a profit for every time someone listens to their song, rather than the flat profit they receive just once if someone buys a physical or digital copy of their song and/or album. Whether the profit is small or large, it is still a profit. There are plenty of struggling musicians out there who would love to make a living off of their music like Taylor Swift, who has actually been called greedy for refusing to stream her music on Spotify.
Even more importantly though, since musicians (should want to) create music for the sole reason that they can share it with others, having their music available on all services would enable them to reach even more listeners. I, for one, would love to see what all the hype is about surrounding Beyoncé's Lemonade or Frank Ocean's highly-anticipated Blonde. But, as someone who does not regularly listen to these artists, I'd rather have the opportunity to sample their albums before I make a financial decision regarding them or their music, especially since I already pay for Spotify Premium. There might be other people in my position too, meaning that there is a whole group of potential fans out there for artists like Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and Taylor Swift that they're not reaching due to their decision to privatize their music. For example, it would even be advantageous for Taylor Swift, who many people have a misconception of, to have her music on Spotify because it would be easier for people to give her music a chance, potentially decreasing the stereotypes and discontent people have against her.
At first, Drake, Adele, and Kanye West all refused to release their latest albums on Spotify, but eventually, they all decided to let Spotify users stream their music. Now, they are three of the most talked about people of the year and their music has been some of the most memorable music of 2016. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but streaming on Spotify is definitely better for both artists and listeners. Hopefully Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and Taylor Swift will all realize this sooner than later because their music is definitely worth being heard by all.
