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Debate
YOU WON’T FIND HER ON SPOTIFY
A debate is raging over whether streaming sites help or hurt the music business. Who is right? BY MELANIE ABRAHAMS
I
n 2014, Taylor Swift shocked the world when she yanked her music from the popular streaming service Spotify. Then this past fall, Adele announced that her new album, 25, would not be available for streaming either.
What do these stars have against streaming? Plenty—and they’re not alone. In fact, an
increasing number of people are saying that streaming is one of the worst things to happen to music in years.
CHINAFOTOPRESS/GETTY IMAGES
How We Got Here Back when your parents were kids, if you wanted to hear your favorite song, you had two main options: go to the mall and buy a cassette tape or a CD, or listen to the radio—sometimes for days and days!—until the song was finally played.
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With the rise of the Internet in
Many listeners see no reason to
the 1990s came a much faster way
pay to download music when it can
to get music. By the end of the
be streamed so cheaply, if not for
decade, websites were allowing
free. Unfortunately for artists, most
people to share digital music files
of them make a lot less when you
online—without paying a penny.
stream their music than when
This is known as piracy, and it’s
you pay to download it. In fact,
against the law. But that didn’t stop
the issue of how little artists
a lot of people from doing it.
get paid is one of the biggest
Soon record labels and artists began losing money in sales. The
criticisms of streaming sites. you stream a song, the artist gets
artists and record companies
a tiny amount of money—maybe
weren’t paid for their work, how
only a fraction of a penny. For
were they supposed to keep making
big-name artists getting millions
music? Eventually, illegal music-
of plays, those tiny payments
sharing sites were slammed with
might add up. But others are
lawsuits—and got shut down.
lucky to make enough to buy a ham sandwich.
revolutionized the way we get our music. At last, you could buy music
The Reality
online legally. (Piracy continues to
We all want musicians to
be a problem though.) You paid to
be fairly paid so they can keep
download a song or an album, and
making the music we love. But the
the record company and the artist
reality is that most artists never
received a portion of the sale.
made much money on their
A few years later, a far less
recorded songs anyway. This was
expensive—yet still legal—option
true long before streaming came
came along: streaming.
along. Usually, the majority of revenue from album sales goes
Biggest Criticism Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify are
to the record companies that produce those albums. money? Many rely on concerts,
options available today. When you
appearances, and products
stream music, you don’t download
(ahem, One Direction perfume).
anything—you listen through the
Perhaps that’s why some
site. On some sites, you can listen
musicians don’t see streaming as
for free with ads, or you can pay to
a new or even serious problem.
listen without ads. On Spotify, $10 a
“If people really like my music,
month (about the cost of one album
I still believe they’ll support it
on iTunes) will get you access to
somewhere, somehow,” cellist
tens of millions of songs.
Zoë Keating told The Atlantic.
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“We’re getting fans to pay for music again.”
THE MUSIC EXECUTIVE
Stephen Cooper, CEO of Warner Music Group
“Subscription streaming is not only a fantastic offering for music fans, it will propel the longterm health of the music industry.”
THE ARTIST Adele
“I buy my music. I download it, and I buy a physical [copy] just to make up for the fact that someone else somewhere isn’t. It’s a bit disposable, streaming.”
So how do artists make
just a few of the many streaming
26
THE INNOVATOR
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify
Here’s how it works: Each time
future of music looked grim: If
Then came iTunes, which
What People Are Saying
THE CONSUMER Leah, 16, from Valatie, NY
“[Spotify is] a great way to stream your favorite music without having to spend money on the album.”
All the Same
Eventually, music could start to
The fact is, we’ve become
all sound the same. And while you
accustomed to getting great music
people stream their music, the
may enjoy singing Adele’s “Hello”
for next to nothing.
quality and diversity of music
in the shower, that doesn’t mean
could decline.
you want every song out there to
On the other hand, if more
Why?
Is it time for our expectations to change?
sound exactly like it.
“Music is art, and art is
A song has to get a lot of plays
important and rare,” Taylor Swift
The Value of Music
if an artist is going to make a
wrote in an editorial for The Wall
significant amount of money on it.
Whether or not streaming
Street Journal. “Important, rare
That could discourage artists from
does more harm than good, for
things are valuable. Valuable things
experimenting with new sounds.
many of us, giving it up would be
should be paid for. It’s my opinion
It would be financially safer to
hard. After all, it would be very
that music should not be free.”
stick with what they know people
expensive to buy all the music that
already like.
we stream.
So what is a great song truly worth to you?
•
Do streaming services do more harm than good? Identify evidence from the article
that supports each side of this debate. Write the information on the lines below.
YES
NO
EARL MCGEHEE/GETTY IMAGES (DANIEL EK); SHAREIF ZIYADAT/FILMMAGIC (STEPHEN COOPER); DANNY MOLOSHOK/REUTERS (ADELE); COURTESY OF FAMILY (LEAH)
Streaming is awful.
Streaming is fantastic.
1 Artists don’t get paid enough.
1
2
2
3
3
ALL STATS FROM THE 2015 STUDY BY THE PEW RESEARCH CENTER
EXAMINE POINTS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DEBATE—AS WELL AS YOUR OWN BELIEFS—and decide what you think. State your opinion in one sentence below. This can become the thesis statement for an argument essay.
Take this activity further! Write an essay using our Scope GET THIS template.
ACTIVITY ONLINE
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