Paul Johnson's life was like any other struggling musician - he hustled, worked a variety of jobs, and took on gigs. Next up, one of Spotify's Fresh Finds playlists, created to feature up-and-coming musicians, included his acoustic pop-folk song "Firework". Spotify and other streaming services are investing significantly in playlists, from newspaper RapCaviar to algorithmically-generated Discover Weekly (which predicts what new members of music might enjoy) (no matter what). most searched for real estate in hip hop). Playlist positions are highly sought after due to the number of streams they generate - over 7 billion in the case of RapCaviar in 5 years - and how they introduce music to new listeners. Johnson benefits from the latter.
His First Playlist increased his daily streams from a few thousand to 20,000, and as his music appeared on more and more playlists, it eventually reached hundreds. thousand. He currently makes about $200,000 a year from this activity, mostly from streaming revenue. For Paul, that was amazing. But it is a story about Horatio Alger, like almost all musical achievements. Spotify wants you to think that rising from poverty to wealth is the result of smarts and hard work, but it actually takes a lot of luck. This omission of the element of luck shows how difficult it is for musicians to support their own streaming revenue - and how many talented and hardworking people will never be able to do so.
One of the few times in recorded music history where power went in the direction of musicians happened just before the beginning of the streaming era. Despite the fact that many of them were going through a severe recession at the time, the democratization brought about by digital technology and the Internet also prompted record companies to end the abuses they have committed over the years.
Now, however, the recorded music industry has once again become an hourglass, with streaming services its focus. Streaming platforms are positioning themselves to do the same, as the music industry is set to allow labels and publishers to capture most of the value of music as they become dominant. than.
The most dominant player, Spotify, is telling investors it intends to use its audience to create a major digital advertising game that will make it the second market leader. three, after Google and Facebook. To collect what the company claims is real-time mood and activity data from members, the company promotes playlists with names like Mood Booster, Happy Hits, Life Sucks, and Coping with Loss , then sell advertising. However, this claim is certainly false because, like the rest of Big Tech, Spotify is better at convincing advertisers that it has a mind-control spark that can compel people to make purchases that it does. is not convincing customers to do. therefore.The real money will be made when Spotify acts as a middleman between listeners and performers. And a key component of its capacity to do so will be the very same playlists that earned Paul Johnson and other musicians their breakthrough success.
The promise of streaming is that it will allow users to instantly access nearly any type of music. But instead of making their own choices, subscribers to streaming sites are increasingly listening to playlists created by algorithms or human curators. Playlists are becoming more and more common, as noted by the International Federation of Musicians: "There is one playlist for every minute of the day: wake-up, breakfast, work-out, relaxation, meditation, running, partying, etc.
Every moment of the day has its own playlist: waking up, eating breakfast, exercising, unwinding, meditating, running, socialising, etc. With only one button push, music can be played for the next 30 minutes, a whole evening, or the entire night.
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