The advent of web radio and streaming has ushered in a new era in the music industry. The accessibility, ease of listening and personalization of music has led us to listen to it much more often. GlobalWebIndex, along with Universal Music and Spotify, surveyed nearly 57,000 people and found that the majority of users already listen to music online – an average of 64 percent.
Through machine learning technology, platforms like Spotify analyze behavioral data from listeners, including the number of times they listen at different times of day. Such analytics are used to form playlists – for example, tracks in the spirit of “Acoustic Calm” or “Nature Sounds” are considered logical to offer users to listen to before going to bed.
In general, with the advent of streaming, the global music market is constantly growing: for example, in 2018, sales increased by 9.7% compared to last year and amounted to 19.1 billion dollars. Another interesting fact: studies show that thanks to streaming services (but not only them), the share of piracy in the music market has decreased by more than 50% since 2013.
What’s going on with the music itself
Spotify and Apple Music aren’t just changing the way we listen-they’ve changed the music itself. The streaming services provide artists with statistics about tracks and user behavior: you can see how many times they put a song on, at what second they switched to another, when they increased the volume of the track as they listened. Musicians look at all these indicators and write tracks based on such metrics. In this way authors try to catch the audience’s attention right away and, as a rule, they prefer to start their tracks with a catchy beat or even a chorus.
All this is done so that the platform automatically promotes a track higher in the charts. Usually it needs to be listened to for at least 30 seconds. Another tip – to open a track with a sample already familiar to the mass listener (it is possible to do it in the format of a conditional remix). In this way, it is more likely not to switch over something that is already familiar or evokes a feeling of nostalgia. Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj used this technique: for the recording of the single “Swish Swish”.
One of the leading trends in popular music is duets, whether it’s a joint recording of a single or a remix. When a song is released by two artists, it appears on the profiles of each of the musicians – hence the greater chances of success. For example, Justin Bieber’s remix of the already “shot” song “Despacito” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for a record sixteen weeks.
Among other things, the songs are getting shorter: the average track length has dropped from four minutes and thirty seconds in 2000 to three minutes and forty seconds. Initially, the limitations were dictated by the radio market: the air of the station is painted by seconds, so the length of a track of three or four minutes was considered optimal. Now experts believe that the songs are getting shorter because of the change in the principle of payment: platforms charge money for listening as soon as the notorious 30-second mark is fixed. The need to write long songs is gone: a musician with five three-minute songs will earn more than someone who made three five-minute songs.
We can listen to music all the time and at all times. Albums have given way to smart playlists that collect tracks based on user preference or mood – music is cheaper and more accessible than ever. Streaming services encourage listening to compiled playlists, so listeners are less tied to specific musicians.
Studies have found that streaming has increased the number of music tracks listened to by 49 percent compared to before platforms like Spotify came along. They also found that the number of unique artists listened to over a six-month period through streaming services increased by 36%. However, listeners admit that music is less valuable now than it was before the advent of streaming:
“I used to have to think hard before I bought an album, and now I often add songs to my playlists that I might never listen to.”
From art to background
Streaming services are changing music dramatically. For one thing, musicians and producers are paying more attention to analytics and are often guided not by creativity, but by how far a track will “go” on the Spotify and Apple Music charts.
Music ceases to be perceived by listeners as art and becomes commonplace or a backdrop for familiar activities, such as helping to concentrate while studying. On the other hand, streaming allows music lovers to discover more bands and genres than ever before, and has generally spurred general interest in music, contrary to predictions.