On New Years Day, I switched on the TV to find a repeat of the UK Govt Select Committee on Music Streaming airing. It was compelling viewing. What did I learn?
The music industry is unfair. Uncontroversially and terribly unfair. More unfair than you thought or could imagine. To understand the problem, in 30 seconds, listen to the brilliant, brave Nadine Shah. Listen to her music too. It’s powerful.
The streaming era has denigrated music, turning it into freebie promotional content, given away to draw people in to buy services, and non-music products like iphones. To survive in this ecosystem artists are giving away their music so they can make money from tee-shirts and mugs.
How did we end up here?
You probably know streaming services pay your musicians a pittance (~$0.003 per stream), but did you know your subscription does not go to the artists you listen to? It goes into a single pot to be distributed pro rata; you are paying for Drake, Ed Sheeran, and Bad Bunny, whatever you listen to.
Most music lovers, I included, feel sad and guilty. We want to support the music we love. User-centric based pay-outs – whereby the royalties portions of our streaming subscriptions go to the artists we listen to – are gaining support (and resistance). Here is an excellent summary of the models and current data; I’m a big fan.
What do I do?
Music is not my livelihood, by choice. But I want a world where, if I made a different choice, it would be possible to earn a living from people listening to the music I create. That is not possible today. What have I done to build this world? Not much, to my shame. My physical and digital music does have a price – until today (see below). My rationale is that if I don’t value music, how I can expect anyone else to. But not many buy it – they are all streaming! I average ~50,000 streams/month.
And, for me, the joy of making music is in the sharing. In connecting with people, wherever they are, whatever their means, who gain joy and meaning from my creations. Streaming has brought music to my ears that I would never have found otherwise. And it has put my music into the ears of 1000s of people in at least 77 countries. I don’t want to change that, but I do want the music, and those that create it, to be appropriately valued.
An experiment for 2021
I want to try a different way of sharing my music this year. The idea came from a happy accident, as so many ideas do. Recently, I set my music to ‘pay what you want’ so a radio presenter, who kindly offered to play my music on his show, could download the tracks he wanted. I forgot to change it back and last week someone bought my whole discography, paying £10 per album when he/she could have paid nothing. Wow. That’s the equivalent of 15,000 Spotify streams.
From today all my music is free
Physical and digital. You can get it from Bandcamp or my website (£1+shipping for CDs on Bandcamp, that’s the minimum I could do). If you the music, please download or order the CDs, and enjoy it. With my love.
What can you do to support music?
What is your part in this experiment? Any of the following will make a difference, for me or any other musician.
Pay something, to me or someone else.
Of course, the most potent way of changing the system is to pay for music. All my music is set to ‘pay what you want’. So, you can pay any amount if you choose to. Perhaps you could pay it forward, buy someone else’s music; there are so many beautiful, creative artists on Bandcamp. If you do, please tell me.
Write a quick review on Bandcamp.
Writing even a couple of words builds social proof and feeds algorithms. Downloading from Bandcamp, even if you only stream music, will make a difference. Taking a few seconds to show your appreciation with a review will make a big difference. Or at least I believe it will - we will see from the data!
Share the music.
Sharing a song, album, video on your Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Insta helps spread the word, and gains your artist new listeners. Every listener counts, not much for now, but we will change that.
Tell us you listened.
My day is brightened any time a person contacts me, to say they found and enjoyed my music. All artists are the same. I struggled for many, many years with sharing my music, I felt it was ‘not worth’ sharing. I still struggle sometimes. Every email helps. All artists are the same!
Over the year, I’ll review the data and see if this model makes more (for me and in total if you choose to buy someone else’s music). I’ll keep you posted.
I’d love to hear how you feel about the music industry and how you support music, or how it makes you feel that it is hard to these days. Or anything you feel like sharing. Email me or comment here.
Yours hopefully,
Nazneen xxxx
The world is changing rapidly, Nazneen. Here in America, the very foundation of our democracy is being attacked, and not from foreign enemies, but from within -our own elected leaders. Greed is the worst sin, according to Lao Tzu, and it hits musicians, writers, and artists. The creative people have historically suffered, and it seems it continues to this day. I will continue to purchase your wonderful music because I enjoy listening to it. I don't stream anything.