A Real Conversation About Music Streaming

Article: http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/music-distribution/biggest-myths-music-streaming/   Author: Chris Robley http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author/chris-r-at-cd-baby/   This week Blasko and Mike get into the myths of music streaming and digging into the article “The Biggest Myths About Music Streaming” by Chris Robley, tackling the following points:   There’s no money in itFor artists who own 100% of their publishing and sound recording rights, all their streaming revenue flows to them. No label advances, catalog licensing deals, or complicated splits to contend with.  In the major label world though, most songs are written by teams of people. If the artist is lucky enough to be credited as a writer, they’re still often splitting those publishing royalties three, or six, or twelve ways. As for the royalties generated by the streaming of a sound recording, well, let’s just say the labels have done a fine job keeping much of that dough for themselves   It killed the albumStreaming didn’t kill the album. Downloads did. If anything, I’d argue that streaming might actually HELP albums.   I can window or withhold to drive physical sales or downloads(Windowing is the act of releasing a certain piece of music to different platforms/formats at different times so you can direct fans to whichever outlet benefits you most. Again, that might work if you’re Adele. Her fans will go where she commands.) Don’t window and don’t withhold. Be everywhere, because your fans need you to meet them where THEY hang out. Not visa versa.   It’s only a matter of time before people realize they miss having the tangible, physical record or CDIf you grew up with vinyl or CDs, I get it — you miss them (or some aspect of them, at least). But most people who were born in the past two decade don’t miss them, don’t need them, and won’t demand their return.   If we boycott streaming, everyone will have to go back to the way it was.Whoever does get together to remove their music from, say, Spotify — it’s just not going to make that big a difference, because your music isn’t as in-demand as bigger artists that actually embrace streaming. Then you’re just left out of the party, because your potential fans will be dancing to another artist’s jams.   --- Email any questions or comments to [email protected] Find Blasko on Twitter and Instagram: @blasko1313 Find Mike Mowery on Twitter and Instagram: @mikeoloop ManageMental is part of the Jabberjaw Media Network. www.jabberjawmedia.com    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices