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More music is released daily than in the entire year of 1989, according to a report from music-industry publication MusicRadar. Music business economist Will Page, who is the former Chief Economist of Spotify and UK performing rights agency, PRS for Music, said that the total number of songs released on an average day in 2024 outnumbers the entire amount released across a year at the end of the 80s. Page told this as part of the publication’s long-read into how subscription streaming services have changed the musical landscape.
It’s an idea backed up by findings from MiDIA which said that in 2022, there were 75.9 million music creators, up 12% from the previous year. These figures are expected to keep growing, with the same analysts expecting 198.
2 million people to be producing music by the end of the decade. It’s a fascinating insight and plays into one of the key responses has routinely made to criticism of the platform’s low artist payouts. Following the release of the on what Spotify pays artists earlier this year, Ek took to X to give his thoughts on the perception the company doesn’t pay fair compensation.
“How is it that Spotify can say on the one hand that we are paying more and more out to the music industry, the music industry is growing, more artists are benefitting from it? But yet, anecdotally, you are hearing from artists how unhappy they are about the payouts they’re getting from streaming?” the CEO wrote. With almost anybody able to pick up an instrument and laptop to record their own songs nowadays, in effect, Ek believes the economy of music is similar to football’s. Millions play the game but only a handful of players ever make a successful career of it.
The data released by Spotify seems to track with that. In 2022, more than 10,000 artists generated over $100,000 (€94,900) and the 50,000th highest-earning artist earned over $12,500 (€11,900) in that same year. Ek’s critics have ranged from huge artists claiming they aren’t being compensated fairly – he responds that this lies with their labels – and other streaming platforms.
Tidal, for example, was set up to offer better quality music streaming and a fairer payment platform for artists. But Spotify’s failings – or lack thereof – aren’t the bigger picture here. Such a huge number of publishing musicians also means a lot about the state of music as an artistic enterprise as a whole.
Page continued to say that “more of that music is being done by artists themselves”, noting the demand for home music production software. What’s significant about the rate of music being produced is it confirms a trend the industry has long been aware of. While the 20th century’s music was largely defined by an exclusive machine of studios, labels and distributors, now the average individual with enough nous to pick up a midi keyboard can write, record and publish their own tracks.
As with the introduction of camera phones when film directors claimed it was the dawn of everyone becoming a filmmaker, the barriers to entry for publishing music are lower than ever. How will this impact music scenes? On the surface, it would seem that this could herald in a new age of DIY musicians and subcultures based around increasingly niche avant-garde sounds. For those willing to seek it out, this is the case.
In Manchester, for example, acts like left-field electronica producer Industries and art-pop performer Norrisette might not be on the biggest stages, but regularly gig around the city. But the flipside to burgeoning local DIY scenes is that at a popular level, where you can have a financially stable career, musicians are more often subservient to the algorithms of the streaming services and social media platforms that are key to 21st century musical discovery. Algorithms are designed to sort out the music a user is most likely to enjoy, instead of allowing users the full freedom to sift through the thick molasses of their now oversaturated favourite genres.
As a result, the generically enjoyable filters to the top of the pile. Pair this with a rise in AI-created music – think of those easy listening jazz playlists by faceless artists on Spotify – and average music tastes risk tending towards blandness instead of a polyphony of creativity. More music will always be a good thing.
That recording and publishing music is easier than ever is a net good. This is in part thanks to services like Spotify. Although Spotify may be the long-term future of music consumption, it’s right to criticise it for not creating a financially viable platform for a greater plurality of musicians.
If nothing else, it entrenches privilege as the go-to accessible point for a career in the industry. But even if Spotify sorts out its compensation model, the world still sorely needs to find better ways to find and consume the huge amount of music out there..
