Spotify monthly earnings

I remember when Spotify first came out. The ability to listen to any song I wanted to with a few keystrokes felt truly magical after years of downloading songs or entire albums and listening to them from start to finish. I discovered Spotify back in 2010 or 2011.

Since then, the music industry has fundamentally changed in many ways. From venture capital entering the market and buying up entire catalogs to bands basing more and more of their credibility on the monthly stream count, the streaming world has rapidly matured. I say this after getting home from back-to-back shows in Berkeley and Ventura.

One of the sad byproducts of the design changes to how we consume music is how much less intentionality and thought are placed on what a person listens to. Back in the old days, if you wanted to listen to something you’d either turn on the radio or seek out an album by a band. Now with playlists, you can easily hear and discover new bands, or you can tune out a bit and treat music more like background noise. This is great for artists who want to make music that fits a pre-existing mold but makes it difficult if you want to try and create something unique and differentiated.

This all got me thinking, given how much music has been commoditized in the past decade, what if we fully embraced that and showed users an approximation of an artist's monthly earnings? I think this could alienate people from larger acts and also make you feel sorry for smaller bands. Maybe people would make more of an effort to “vote with their ears” and cede more money over to struggling musicians, but the pessimist in me doubts that.

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