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And it’s no wonder at all, really. Imagine being able to access tens of millions of songs, playlists- both curated and personal, all at the touch a single touchscreen? Who wouldn’t want that and instead waste money buying physical formats that would necessitate a playing gadget?
And besides just being able to access all these, streaming music online allows you to hunt down all your favorites from one place and at the same time, discover new artists and bands.
Hey, it’s 2019 and we must take advantage of today’s technology.
So, who are the people driving the music streaming narrative? Let’s dig in.
Of course, with the popularity of music streaming service that we’ve witnessed within the past few years, there must be some industry leaders taking the top spots. These include Spotify, Music, Tidal, Deezer, Amazon, Google Play, Pandora and Soundcloud. Let’s review each.
Spotify had to be on top of this list. This is true not only because it's one of the oldest but also because it's the main reason for its formation- to tackle piracy.
Spotify was launched in 2006 to counter music piracy which was hurting artists' revenues and it was such a hit. Today, Spotify has over 200 million users with over 100 million of them subscribing to the premium package.
Let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of Spotify.
Advantages
To artists
To the general users
The disadvantages
This was marketed as Spotify’s most personalized playlists and updated every Monday for users. It’s the most popular feature in Spotify’s user reviews.
It’s based on your listening habits in the previous weeks and is curated automatically based on this.
As of 2019, this playlist was offered to brands to sponsor as a way of generating more money.
This is one of Spotify’s flagship playlists which features up to 55 songs of different genres. Several musical stars are featured and include Drake, Post Malone, YBN, etc.
How about launching your music career skyward?
This French-based streaming platform also offers serious competition to the top players like Music and Spotify. It has about 14million subscribers with about 50% being on premium subscription,
Its payouts are relatively competitive, taking 5th place in the list of top-paying music streaming services.
The advantages
The disadvantages
Right from the day of inception, Tidal has maintained a very high-quality music delivery to its users and pays competitively.
The platform is fast-growing and has already amassed more than 4.2 million premium subscribers which means good reach for artists.
The advantages
The disadvantages
Although it’s not easy to determine how many users have subscribed to Amazon, it’s also a relatively famous and loved music streaming platform based on its user reviews.
But, Amazon is still a giant in the music streaming industry, especially after introducing it’s AMAZON MUSIC HD which streams CD-quality music. The offers include over 50 million CD-quality tracks and 'millions' of hi-res tunes for all the streamers who are willing and able to pay some USD 17 per month.
That also includes 4 UHD playlists – for jazz, country, R&B and classical!
The advantages
The disadvantages
Pandora is unique in its approach to music streaming. You have limited ability to choose the songs you want to listen to but you have the chance to discover new music by searching for your favorite artists who are just venturing into the industry. This makes it more popular among new artists than the more established ones.
Already, it has over 80 million active users and about 4 levels of subscription starting a free version which is annoyingly ridden with ads.
These options include Free, Pandora Plus ($4.99), Pandora Premium for $9.99 and Premium Family Plan at $14.99 per month allowing up to 6 users to use one account.
The advantages
The disadvantages
Google play has a presence in over 65 countries which makes it competitive in terms of audience reach. It has already gotten itself more than 15 million subscribers ready to listen to your music as an artist.
It’s not very popular but offers a worthy alternative to the other more dominant players like Spotify with a bit more favorable features.
The advantages
The disadvantages
Originally started as a content sharing platform for musicians, SoundCloud grew first to become probably the best place for musicians to promote their music. It packs more 125 million songs.
The advantages
The disadvantages
Napster is the undisputed king in the music streaming industry when it comes to the highest royalty fees. Napster features a great mobile app, browser playback, and a strong music collection.
Advantages
The disadvantages
Now to compare, how much music streaming services pay musicians in 2019,consider the table below for a summarized view of how the different streamlining platforms pay for royalty as of 2019.
Streaming platform |
Amount of royalty payment |
Napster |
0.01900 |
Tidal |
0.01284 |
Music |
0.00783 |
Google play music |
0.00676 |
Deezer |
0.00640 |
Spotify |
0.00437 |
Amazon |
0.00402 |
Pandora |
0.00133 |
YouTube |
0.00069 |
For most artists, these are not as impressive as they would wish them to be but with time and as they grow their popularity, they will earn better and of course, more competition will kick in and better rates offered.
Of course, the above names come from years ago and have been around to perfect their gigs. Some newcomers are doing relatively good and have made it their priority to kick some names off the top list.
Although YouTube is synonymous with videos, it’s suddenly revived Google’s hopes of making a winning music streaming service.
It adorns an almost similar look to the normal YouTube but with a fresh imagination of how a music streaming service should be. It packs together a set of easy-to-use discovery and search features that no other platform has thought of before.
The advantages
The disadvantages
Yet another great tool crafted in France. For close to 10 years, Qobuz was restricted within Europe. It opened doors in the US in 2019 and promises a beautiful story going into the future.
Imagine being able to stream high-resolution FLAC files doing up to 24-bit resolution and with sampling rates in the range of 192kHz? That’s a feat no other platform has ever tried and fully succeeded.
The advantages
The disadvantages
Idagio, unlike other streaming platforms, works only for the classical genre. The system is built to accommodate the diversity in which the genre is created and does so well, delivering high quality, always matching or exceeding CD-quality.
Idagio promises the ultimate classical music streaming experience and it sure lives up to that promise, with lossless audio, expertly curated playlists and a smart search.
About payouts, Idagio promises to pay by the second, not by the stream like others in the competition.
The advantages
The disadvantages
The competition in the music streaming industry is getting hotter day by day which means we are yet to see more diversification like what Idagio began.
All new and upcoming artists need to involve themselves in some form of music promotion to get their music to the world. Music promotion is particularly important for those who not only want to improve their following but also aiming to get the numbers following and listening to their music on streaming platforms.
However, the tips that one be implemented today for streaming promotion 2019 are obviously different from those one would execute 15 years ago.
This is all thanks to the power of the internet.
So, what would one do to promote their music in 2019? We look at the top 10 as explained below.
1. Start with your own website.
Having a website not only gives you the privilege of sharing all the information you may want to put out there but it gives you more credibility.
A website gives you control over your image and message. You can control what you share with your fans and the rest of the world, sell your tickets and share your tour dates.
2. Get you blog running
Blogs can be independent or extensions arising from your website. You can use your blog to share information about how your albums are coming through, discuss any new music your planning in releasing. There's a lot you can achieve with your blog. Think about sharing something on your blog either weekly or biweekly.
3. Make good use of social media to build your following
You make money by having large numbers following and listening to your music. If you can get the numbers on social media platforms and channel the same traffic to your music on streaming services, then it would be easy to generate the revenues every artist's dream. Facebook, Twitter and the like are very good options. Learn how to use them effectively.
4. Connect with music blogs
Reach out to music blogs and get featured, be it through an interview or by them writing a special feature about you. This will help you get the word out to audiences you’d not have reached.
5. Get on streaming sites
Most people abandoned downloading music years ago. Today, it’s all about streaming services. Make sure you get on at least 50% of the top streaming music platforms.
6. Get yourself an electronic press kit (EPK)
An EPK is basically a resume covering your music and life. It has your music bio, history, achievements, etc. and basically targeting print media. Add some high-quality photos to it. You can have it on your website for easy access.
7. Make good use of online advertising whenever the budget allows
Online advertising may include advertising on search engines like Google, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and on music blogs. You can also use your website or blog to collect email list and engage in some form of email marketing to get the word out about your music.
8. Send out Direct emails
Emails are a more direct way of getting to your fans because there's a likelihood of 90% of your content reaching their inbox. You can use your blog to collect emails by putting a prompt that collects emails. You can use your music to offer free downloads provided one provides their email.
9. Collaborate with other musicians who have done better or have more following than you do.
This allows you to get their fans to hear about your music and talent when they listen to the music the two of you have made together. Tell you, collaborators, to share the music and introduce you to their fans too.
10. Be persistent with every resolution you make
Making it as a musician is about persistent even when there's little success to show for it. At the end of the day, your efforts will pay up if you keep the faith and not give up on your efforts.
If you’ve set out to get your music to the world through promotion, then it’s important to be well acquitted with what’s working and when it’s working.
Below are a few of the best practices for 2019 and beyond.
1. Think of running a giveaway promotion
No one would resist a worthy gift offered for free. Think along this line. You can start getting a personalized item from one of your favorite brands- something like a free bracelet, or stickers from previous promotions. You can run a campaign with your fans to get the best caption of a silly photo of you from previous activities.
2. Try an experiment with different content
It's all about finding what works which will obviously lead to you to understand what doesn't work. Generate a plan for this and study the response. You can try both online and offline. You can use your shows to get what works offline like which songs get the most reactions, analyze which merch generates most attention at your tables, etc.
You can also experiment online by trying either photos or videos and study the reaction you receive. At the end of it, you’ll get something that gets more attention.
3. Make sure you throw a special concert if you can
Think of having shows your fans don’t expect you to have, at places they least expect. This is a great way of gaining attention.
4. Try podcasts.
These podcasts shouldn’t be all about you but about the music industry in general or about the things you care about most. Your target should be people who have never heard of your music and are not your fans yet.
5. Do some music promotion to get your music out there
If you haven’t heard of Spotify promotion or music promotion, it’s a good time to invest in them. Use all the channels you have that can generate you traffic to your music listed on these platforms. There are several means of doing this and you need to equip yourself with at least the ones that matter as some of them are already explained early in this article.
A lot is obviously going to change and probably for the better. So, as a budding artist, it’s wise to equip yourself with knowledge on what platforms to look out for as part of the future predictions in the music streaming industry.
1. Music catching up with Spotify - Nearly
is obviously giving Spotify a run for its money in terms of the numbers subscribed to the premium options in the two platforms. As an artist, music's growth pattern is proving to be very lucrative thus your efforts on this platform should double going forward.
2. Tencent Music making a powerful move to acquire Spotify
Although its IPO was rather timid, Tencent is poised to acquire all of Spotify especially if investor favoritism shifts to their route. The Chinese giant is really making calculated moves day by day and it’s not to be wished away.
3. Charts are likely going to mean less and less and major labels losing their mojo
It is obvious billboards have ruled the music industry for years but with the emergence of playlists from major streaming services hitting the scene so fast, a lot is going to change towards playlists rather than billboards and charts.
Also, major labels are going to continue losing big as more Indie and boutique labels continue the rising game. It's almost 2020 and more DIY trends have also hit the music promotion industry.
4. Sadly, the streaming music business will remain unprofitable
Although almost all streaming services are good at what they do, one thing they haven’t cracked is how to make serious money with the streaming service. Licensing deals will keep choking them, making them unprofitable.
Conclusion
From the foregoing, it's streaming music is gaining more grounds that we imagined a few years ago. As budding artists, it's critical to understand everything about these platforms and what potential they have your music career.
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