The Streaming Crisis and the decline of music's value.
- Karev
- 12 minutes ago
- 6 min read
The music industry is dying slowly and the world knows it. Music has always been valuable when it comes to cultural identity and as a timepiece to remember the good times when reflecting on one's life journey. Music has also become an industry where people have given their lives to entertain others by using their creative genius to write, produce sounds and express words to the delight of others in hopes of getting a career out of their love of music. With today's world becoming so technological, people have more of a chance now to share their hopes and dreams to contribute to the musical landscape/industry. But is that now making the value of music decline and creating the era of the starving artist more apparent than any time before?
Technology and music has been at war for a long time. If you are old enough to remember MP3.com, Lime wire, Napster, and the upload revolution during the late 90s and early 2000s then you were the first to see people being able to share and upload their music. Of course the music industry and business interest saw this and the music upload and sharing community took its' pirating methods to the boardroom and streaming platforms eventually came to exist with the scope of having any music you want to listen to accessible with a portable device that eventually become the commonly used cell phone. Music is now available at the click of a screen from many artists of any decade and to the consumer this is a dream. To the artist though this reality has become more and more of a problem and we see the decline of appreciation of music in real time as society moves into its next technological turn. But what has streaming done to hurt artists? Let's look at what has happened to the money and industry of music with the boom of streaming.
The Music Buffet
The music industry has made people wealthy for generations. People that run the industry are rich beyond words and the artists we believe and have been proven wrong have made money as well. A lot of people have gone into the artist lifestyle wanting to live the wealthy life and while today's social media habits and influences have lied to the public of how accessible this is we have seen the music industry take a lot of losses when it comes to money and payouts. The first issue is the value of the song and album.
As of 2025 the figures of payouts to artists today are criminal. The stream is valued at fractions of a penny and the calculations are projected (allegedly) by a royalty calculation payout scale. Here's a general overview of estimated per-stream payouts for artists on major platforms, as of early 2025:
Tidal: Often cited as one of the highest-paying, with estimates around $0.012 to $0.019 per stream.
Apple Music: Generally pays higher than Spotify, with estimates around $0.007 to $0.01 per stream.
Deezer: Estimates range from $0.0064 to $0.01143 per stream.
Amazon Music: Typically around $0.004 to $0.0088 per stream.
Spotify: One of the most common and often criticized for its lower rates, generally ranging from $0.003 to $0.005 per stream.
YouTube Music: Tends to be on the lower end, with estimates around $0.00069 to $0.00449 per stream. This can be influenced by whether it's from a premium subscriber or ad-supported view.
Pandora: One of the lowest, with estimates around $0.0013 to $0.00235 per stream.
The crime in this is how much does an artist have to stream to earn a livable wage when it comes to putting music out on streaming services. What influences the payouts and are there block in the streaming money when it is paid out? This is what influences the payouts to artists and dictates if they can be paid a livable wage:
Platform's Revenue Model: Whether the platform relies more on paid subscriptions (which generally yield higher payouts) or ad-supported free tiers.
Artist's Agreement: The contract an artist has with their record label or distributor significantly impacts their cut of the royalties. Independent artists distributing directly may retain a larger percentage.
Listener's Location: Payouts can vary by country, with streams from wealthier regions (like the U.S. or U.K.) generally paying more than those from emerging markets.
Subscription Type: Premium (paid) streams generate more revenue than free, ad-supported streams.
Market Share Model vs. User-Centric Model: Most platforms use a "market share" model, where an artist's payout is based on their proportion of the platform's total streams. Some are exploring a "user-centric" model, where a subscriber's monthly fee is distributed directly to the artists they listen to.
Discovery Mode/Promotional Programs: Some platforms offer features where artists can opt-in for increased visibility in exchange for a slightly reduced royalty rate on those particular streams.
Minimum Stream Thresholds: Some platforms, like Spotify, have introduced policies that require a minimum number of streams (e.g., 1,000 streams in 12 months) for a track to qualify for royalties.
With these guidelines in place we have seen music consumed to the point where the owners of the streaming platforms are making collectively over $20 Billion Dollars and the artists mainstream and independent are just taking home pennies for their work. Known artists from the mainstream music label era have had to renegotiate contracts to include streaming as a part of royalties to get money. Artists like Ryan Leslie have taken their music totally off of streaming platforms due to lack of pay. Others like Snoop Dogg and Redman have threatened to take their music off of these platforms because they are not seeing any money from this new music norm. In New Jersey as of 2025 the livable wage to live as a single adult annually is $54,503. As an independent artist one would have to stream 13,625,750 streams per year, or 37,331 streams per day for a livable wage. If earning money is hard for Nas, Jay-Z, and well known artists then what is the struggle like for the up and coming artist like?
With music so easy to be consumed by the touch of a button and the access to these streaming services with music able to be uploaded by anyone with the right opportunity the music industry has been oversaturated with music. Music is released of good and bad quality and as such music releases are not cherished anymore as music can be released at any time and at any day. The era of listening to an entire body of work/album has disappeared for the catchy new song that people feel in the moment of their days. People once clamored for the new album to sit, listen and appreciate while now more so music is consumed on the go and as people are constantly moving the attention span has shortened. People and society as a whole does not value music as an art any more. Today in our microwave society music is easy to consume and put out so it is not valued as an art anymore just as a modern life commodity easily to be exploited and experienced at any time.
Will the industry come back? That is dependent on the artists and their plans to succeed. A lot of people call themselves artists but many are mostly hobbyists that make music because they can. Some are people that want to be special where they are from and have no desire to become huge stars. Today people chase the bag (dumb) and do not have the work ethic to move their music and sound to the next level. Without value put into their creation or art form, then the industry will continue to decline and the starving artist will be the norm and standard. An industry outsider said "New artists are not valuable unless they die and death helps them recoup on their budget. Older music has more value because of nostalgia". If this is true you, new artists that make music, have no value in this new music industry and as the world moves toward an AI future may no longer exist. Wu-Tang Clan sold an album for 1 million dollars and Mach Hommy sold a vinyl for his album The G.A.T for 5 thousand dollars a copy. What can be done to make your music valuable and are you willing to do what it takes to be the next artist to change the world and make a living creating the art you love in a dying industry?
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