I dare you to go a single day without listening to any type of music, it plays in our cars, our favorite movies and tv shows, at the mall, on social media and sometimes even at school or work. It plays whether it’s an actual song or just a small jingle. Music can shape who we are, it helps us show emotion and connect to our cultures. How we listen to our favorite artists has changed over many years. We went from cassettes, vinyls and CDs to listening on streaming services. This shift in listening created a problem for those artists we love.

 Physical media such as the vinyls, CDs and cassettes that I mentioned have now mostly been thrown out for a streaming service such as Spotify. Steaming has made the music we cherish more convenient and largely accessible. You can either choose to listen for a monthly subscription or for free with ads and some limitations but with this price you have millions of songs at your fingertips. Sure this makes it great for us the consumer but it costs the artists greatly.

 An article titled “Charted: The impact of streaming on the music industry” by the World Economic Forum says that during the 90s the music industry generated an estimated $22 billion in revenue, this number was driven up by the popularity of CDs during this time. When buying an album from a store money went straight to those artists and their label, this made it easy for artists to have something they could live off. As the internet took off things like piracy and mp3 players took its toll on the music industry. According to the World Economic Forum’s article again, there was roughly a 60% decline in music revenue during the 2000s as a result of how people changed their listening habits.

 In the 2010s streaming started to rise and is now how most people listen to music. According to DigitalPhablet and their article “Streaming Surges to 70% of Global Music Revenue in 2024.” as their title states streaming now makes up 70% of music revenue making the industry dependent on the services platforms like Spotify provide. This seems like a huge win for the music industry but it is different for the artists themselves.

 According to a Worldmetrics article by the name “Royalties Music Industry Statistics” Spotify pays around $0.003-$0.005 per stream and other platforms pay around the same. This means to get around $3000-$5000 BEFORE labels and employees take a cut you need one million streams. Platforms take roughly 30% of revenue, labels 55% and the artists take home 15% of the total revenue made by streaming.

 The Journal of Humanities, Music and Dance based on their research in the article “The Economics of Music Streaming: Impact on Artist Compensation and Industry Structure in the Digital Era” say that the top 1% of artists receive around 78% of all streams and 83% of all streaming revenue. These artists show up on playlists and recommendations that Spotify makes making it like a monopoly in the streaming industry. This makes it hard for independent and upcoming artists to be discovered.

 The income made via streaming is almost never enough for artists to live. Most rely on other sources of income like touring, merchandise sales, sponsorships or subscriptions on platforms like Patreon. Touring makes the most money. This makes it tough for artists with health problems, limited funds or any other personal issues that make touring hard or impossible.

 When income is limited this puts pressure on the artist and makes them release music more frequently or do what's “popular” in order to farm streams. This can lead to shorter songs that sound like rushed slop. This impacts what music is meant to be, creative and a diverse community.

 Streaming isn’t all bad obviously though, it allows artists without a label to share their music. Illustrate Magazine says that streaming services have given the music industry an easier entry point. Although this is great exposure from a streaming service it does not make a living income. Fair compensation is important for independent artists to live while making music and that just isn’t happening yet.

 Physical media provided constant income for artists and now is only a very small part. Sales of physical media only make up about 2-5% of music revenue according to Midnight Rebels article “Artist Compensation Crisis.” Some physical media collecting has begun to start again but it is not enough to make and impact.

 Is subscription money distributed fairly? We don’t know due to lack of transparency from streaming services. Although we do know that most subscription revenue is pooled and then divided based on artists' total streams. Some people say that each subscriber's fee should be given to only the artists they listen to in order  to make sure it is fair as said by the WorldMetrics article “Royalties Music Industry Statistics.”

 Music plays a huge part in most of our lives. If our favorite artists can’t live due to income limitations they will start to stop making music. This means that in the future music may no longer be as diverse and beautiful as it is.

 Fans are able to support their favourite artists through buying physical media and merch, going to shows, sharing their music and supporting better platforms that pay artists more. Individual actions may not be enough though, change is required for a fair system and to show how much we value artists and their work.

I am going to leave this petition off with a call to action. Music plays roles in all of our lives. It is always around us and is in our favorite media. Those artists deserve to be fairly compensated for their work. Streaming has helped consumers hear their favorite music but it should also treat artists fairly, if something doesn’t change musicians will stop what they love. Sign this petition in order to help raise awareness for fairness. This petition asks for some changes:

Higher payments per stream.
Payments on where your subscription fee goes to the artists you actually listen to.
More transparency from streaming platforms so we and artists can see where money is going.
More support for independent and upcoming artists.

You can also make a difference. Continue to stream your favourite artists but you can also do things such as buying merch or a physical album, going to shows and sharing your favorite music to friends and family. This may be hard because of your own limitations but one easy thing you can do is sign this petition and share it. We can make the music industry stay a place that holds fairness, diversity and creativity close so we can continue to enjoy the music the way we love.