The Ever-Changing Music Industry

Digital media has almost completely changed the music industry. The newest craze is streaming music for only a few dollars each month. Apple has made the lasting power of music streaming services expand because of Apple Music. Everybody thought Apple Music was late to the game, but after their launch, that’s all millions of iPhone users are using to listen to their music. The exclusivity of Apple Music and other streaming services,like Tidal, have made the business side of the industry more complex. Record deals are being negotiated differently but they don’t matter much anymore, because people can just put their albums up for streaming. People are now more likely to listen to music from unsigned artists because they don’t have to pay for the entire album or an individual song. Streaming services are also drawing up their own contracts with artists now to try to beat each other. For example, Tidal has the likes of Beyoncé,Rihanna, and Kanye. On the flip side, Apple Music has artists like Taylor Swift. Promotion is no longer an issue either. Artists don’t need to go through weeks of promo for a music video. All they have to do is say when it’s dropping and what service it’ll be premiered on and people watch. To touch on the issue of artist payment, payment for music is also getting more attention. This is mainly due to the revolutionary letter that Taylor Swift wrote to Apple Music that led to her contract with them. Apple Music wasn’t going to pay artists for the first few months that they were giving away a free trial because it was supposed to be just a trial. Swift,however, pointed out that artists are already struggling with getting the pay they deserve from streaming services and other digital uses of their music. Because of this, Apple changed their minds and paid their artists. With this new wave of digital media in music, people are respecting music more and artists don’t have to put up with the corruption that plagued the industry for decades.