Everyone knows that the relationship between musicians and record labels can be difficult. Over the past decade, music streaming has changed how bands interact with their labels, if they have one at all. In some ways, it has made the scene better for grassroots, underground rock and metal performers. Let’s check out how.
More Access to Music
The most obvious benefit to fans is expanded access to music. Since every streaming service runs off the internet, your favourite music is just a few taps away. The largest companies like Spotify are free, with a premium ad-free option, so the average listener doesn’t need to pay. The artist is given money for stream plays, and dedicated fans can then buy their music. This echoes a try before you buy marketing tactic that has been used for decades, long before the internet. On the internet, it’s still commonly found in industries like iGaming where offering daily free spins can get users interested in the service, then it’s up to them if they stick around for more or leave satisfied, both outcomes leave a good impression. It was also used by video-streaming companies until a few years ago.
Having never-before-seen music access is also great for discoverability. While the most streamed metal songs are entirely predictable, Spotify’s algorithms have been built to suggest songs from similar but not as well-known bands. This results in a large, if competitive, pool of musicians duking it out to get some valuable attention. On the other side of the coin, more established bands get recurring payments for their stream numbers and can become less reliant on labels and other controlling elements in the industry. The same is true for up-and-comers, but they have to fight for it first.
Supporting Niche Genres
Building off that last point, this wide-open accessibility hasn’t resulted in one bland uni-genre of music that appeals to everybody. As always, no genre is dominant, and every community has different tastes when it comes to their music. Instead, when people have decades of albums and Eps laid before them, they find their favourites and self-categorise into niches.
While streaming services will generally stick to rock and metal (for our fans here) they can also support sub-genres that would have been lost pre-internet. Think more obscure acts that would have lived and died in the backroom of a club in the ‘90s, never being able to afford studio sessions and a CD release. They also store dead music genres that you don’t see much anymore, where old fans can reminisce, and new fans can stumble across what they had missed.
For bands, getting started with music streaming is cheaper, requiring a paid distributor to upload the files once they’ve been recorded. They don’t gatekeep music that hasn’t been recorded professionally, though studio time and mixing are always a wise investment for those that become profitable after their garage band phase.
Interested listeners can find them on the app, giving diamonds in the rough the appreciation that they deserve. When combined with other social media, it helps bands to form a community that will buy releases or even come to a show and could be leveraged to attract a record label. It also makes sure that the sound of every genre stays innovative and fresh, as the best experimental musicians get their chance at the spotlight.
