Hurry Up and Buy: You’re Not Supporting Artists By Streaming

It’s that special time of year where we look back on the year in music and start dropping random lists.  Websites, social media apps, magazines, and more are going to be filled with top artist, albums, genres, movies, books, and whatever else can be quantified.  I, too, am guilty of writing lists because they are a fun and easy thing to do at the end of the year.  But that’s not what this week’s column is about.

I don’t want to put it on the media outlets that have staff trying to get out the office and enjoy the Holidays.  We, as consumers, post and examine the end of the year data given by our streaming services.  While Spotify Wrapped floods the timelines of everyone, letting friends and family know your listening habits from the year; Apple, Tidal, YouTube and others offer their own variation on the year-end review.  Being the top .05% listener of your favorite artist’s evokes a response in a lot of people that apparently wants to make them share that information with the world.  It makes sense.  If you like an artist, you want to show your support by letting others know about the music. And while I completely understand and agree with consumers wanting to support their favorite artists by listening to their music, that is simply not enough.

You need to buy.

Buying from an artist is the only true way to support.  I don’t know who your favorite artist is but let’s say, hypothetically, you listened to one of their songs 1,000 times. Depending on the service, you are helping that artist earn anywhere from $1.30 on Soundcloud to $12.00 on Tidal, which is funny because the highest on lowest offerings on the list are not the most popular streaming services. Apple would get your artist $5.00, YouTube $1.75, and Pandora $1.40 (as well as a few looks because who is using PAID PANDORA?!).  Keep in mind, that’s if you listened to the artist 1,000 times.  You know what would help that artist out more? Actually buying the music.  If you’re truly a fan you should support what you like.

And this is not to place the blame on the consumer.  Music is art.  It just happens to be an art that has been defined by its medium.  It has gone from being delivered on sheet music, to vinyl, to 8-tracks, to cassettes, and now to online.  The price we have paid for music over the years has largely been attributed to how it is being delivered.  In the ‘90s, once music was fully online, record companies brokered a truce with technology to stop stealing. And we were ALL stealing.  I remember looking down at Common’s Like Water for Chocolate twenty-three years ago and telling myself this would be the last CD I ever buy.  I was downloading any kind of music I could find for free and burning it on CDs.  This eventually led me to owning a 256GB iPod that held around 64,000 songs.  It cost me $400. With songs from iTunes costing 99 cents, do you think I paid $64,000 to fill up?  I think you know the answer.

But this is what happens when we let an industry tell us that every piece of an artform has a singular price.  If I told you every piece of visual art is $1, hopefully you would recognize that’s ridiculous.  I say hopefully because we’re seeing some of the same tactics that were used in the technological revolution of music used in the AI creation of art…but that’s an article for another day.  All I’m saying is no art has a static price.  Not visual, not written, not performance, and not musical.

“Yeah, but I don’t have money for all the music that I would get from streaming services.  You want me to buy everything individually?”

Ummm….I know.  And no.

That musical genie is out the bottle, and I don’t know if we’ll ever get it back in but what I’m asking you to do is put more focus on truly supporting what you like.  It not only helps the artists, but also you.  Do you complain about the quality of music?  Go buy the music you like. Do you wonder why what’s popular gains so much mass acceptance?  Support what you like and make it popular.  Do you constantly question why the artist you like doesn’t go mainstream? Go buy their music.  That artist will have actual income that will help them to create more of the art you like.  They might have actual time to focus on the creation of the art as opposed to feeding an algorithm that is more concerned with quantity as opposed to quality. They might not become the most popular thing out, but you will get access to the best quality of music that you like from them.  Are you going to listen to everything?  Again, no…but let’s be honest. Some of the music that you stream right now, you would never actually go pay for.  There are quite a few artists that I have listened to via streaming that I wouldn’t drop a cent on.  There are others that I purchase from immediately without hearing a single note.

What does this have to do with Houston?  I would argue everything.  The point of this weekly posting is to expose readers to the various artists that are growing in the city but once exposed, the best way to support is to buy something from them.  Go buy a shirt, a hoodie, a concert ticket, a vinyl, or a CD.   Buy something.

Years ago, I interviewed a compelling, underground Houston MC that was speaking about the feelings he has when fans tell him they listen to him all the time and want more music. Die hard fans would come up and question why he isn’t at least releasing an album or two a year.

“It’s weird because I know you’re a supporter but with streaming, what am I supposed to say?  You’re asking me why I’m not putting out more music when I put my all into this and you gave me $0.38.  You listened to me a lot but in the end that’s all I got from you.”

I don’t have an end of the year list this week.  Just the hope that as you see artists in this publication from week to week, you truly try to support.