Music Streaming: Revolution of Music Culture through Mobile Access

Music streaming services like Spotify have fundamentally changed and revolutionized the way people consume music. On the smartphone or tablet, users can access a huge selection of titles practically at any time and anywhere, which includes almost all of the world’s music. However, this comfort does not come without consideration: Create the providersDetailed user profiles from listening habits. In addition, artists often receive only minimal amounts of the generated proceeds, which leads to ongoing controversy. These aspects make streaming an ambivalent phenomenon in the modern entertainment industry.

Music streaming basics: no local files, but direct transmission

When streaming music, the desired song is not available as a separate file on the device’s memory, but is streamed in real time from a central service over the Internet and played immediately. The big advantage is obvious: users get access to millions of songs without the need for extensive local storage space, without physical media such as CDs and no titlehaving to buy individually. However, streaming does not acquire ownership of music; Instead, you only borrow the content temporarily to listen to it. Despite this model, streaming is enjoying enormous popularity. A representative study from June 2018, carried out on behalf of Bitkom e.V., showed that a total of 69 percent of all Germans, at least occasionallyConsume music through streaming services and integrate this into your everyday life.

Criticism of artist remuneration: low distributions and market power

Not everyone sees the development of music streaming as purely positive and beneficial. Many artists and music labels criticize the extremely small amounts that platforms like Spotify per song played to the rights holders. Whether the main responsibility for this is with the streaming services themselves or rather with the record labels with which the artists are contractually boundare, a hotly debated topic remains in the industry. Spotify’s free, ad-financed offer in particular is met with sharp rejection from numerous musicians. In 2014, several prominent musicians, including Taylor Swift, initiated a public boycott against the platform to draw attention to the grievances and exert pressure. Meanwhile, however, haveAll those involved in this initiative made their content available again on Spotify. Industry reports indicate that the remuneration structure at Spotify has not significantly improved since then.

Data collection through streaming: every click is logged

If you load your own MP3 files onto your cell phone and play them locally, you can do so as often as you like without an external service being aware of it or collecting data. When streaming a song, on the other hand, the provider inevitably registers any access, as this is essential for the functioning of the service. Music streaming services are excellent due to their technical architectureto create precise and comprehensive profiles about the taste of music and the listening habits of the users. Which title is played at what time? Is the user on the train, is he sitting on the couch at home or is he jogging through the park? Such contextual information flows into the profiles.

Profile use: personalization and advertising as a business model

All major streaming providers create such user profiles systematically. On the one hand, they serve to improve the offer, for example through tailor-made recommendations. On the other hand, they form the basis for interest-based advertising, which is a central source of income. Services like Spotify and Deezer offer two tariff models: an ad-financed, free offer forBeginners and a premium subscription for around 10 euros a month, which is ad-free and offers higher audio quality and additional functions. Profiles are created and used regardless of the tariff. They not only enable better music suggestions that fit exactly to the individual taste, but also the placement of advertising that is tailored to the preferences you have determined. Even providersLike Google and Amazon, which don’t show direct advertising within their music service, integrate the data collected into their extensive ad networks and benefit from it in the long term.

The rental model: no property, only temporary use

If you invest a lot of time in the careful maintenance of personal playlists or adjust your user profile in detail, you should always keep in mind: Each streaming service reserves the right to remove individual titles from the catalog at any time, block an account or discontinue the entire service. In such cases, the music you love can suddenly disappear. himselfPaying subscribers only purchase a license for use, but not a single song as property. When switching to a competing service, playlists can be exported, but none of the major providers currently support the reverse import. A seamless, lossless transfer from one service to another is therefore practically impossible.

Market overview: variety of providers and their differences

The market for music streaming services is now highly diversified and includes numerous platforms. The main differences are whether a free model is offered with advertising or whether the service is purely subscription-based. The monthly fees have leveled off at around 10 euros across the industry, with many providers discounts for families, students orgrant special user groups. There are also deviations in the size and variety of the music catalogue. Platforms like SoundCloud and YouTube are particularly well-engineered with user-generated content and a wide range of amateur uploads. Apple Music relies on professionally curated playlists and exclusive Internet radio stations. Spotify has recently invested heavily in podcasts andexpands its portfolio. Google Play Music also offered the option of uploading and integrating your own local music library into the cloud. All of the providers mentioned in paid mode allow downloading songs for offline use, which saves data volume and allows mobile consumption without a constant internet connection.