According to research conducted by the Record Industry Association of America, music streaming subscription has grown 12 percentage points in the first half of 2020 compared to the previous year. They further concluded that streaming services have a whopping eighty-five percent market share in the entire music industry, compared to physical records, at a mere seven percent (Record Industry Association of America MID-YEAR 2020 RIAA REVENUE STATISTICS). So it is no surprise that American music fans prefer online streaming services as their primary way of listening to their favorite artists. Furthermore, in a similar reporting by BusinessInsider, they’ve discovered that Spotify, one of the most popular music streaming services, has only paid to the original artists, on average, about $0.0033 per stream. Compared to the other streaming services that reported an average payout of about $0.0054 per stream, Spotify’s royalty payout is well below the industry standard. Therefore, if we were to put this figure in context, it means that the artists would have only made a dollar for every two hundred fifty streams (Jacob How much does Spotify pay per stream? what you’ll earn per song, and how to get paid more for your music).

However, the more intriguing part of the Record Industry Association of America’s statistics is the reported six percent of digital downloads. It is usually not common for people to download a digital copy of a song to their devices and listen to them offline for their convenience. Primarily due to copyright infringement concerns and various DRM or digital rights management restrictions. Yet, in an article published by The Guardian more than a decade ago, they have reported that about ninety-five percent of all music downloaded online was illegal (Swash 95% of music downloads are illegal). Therefore, even though it is not a common practice, based on this reporting, it is still relatively effortless to conclude that illegal music downloading has existed for a very long time. And according to a research piece published by a leading cybersecurity editorial DataProt, the U.S, on average, loses about 70,000 jobs a year due to music piracy (Spajić et al. Piracy is back: Piracy statistics for 2021). Hence, it is an immediate threat to the wellbeings of the entire music industry, and it may require some regulatory intervention from a governing agency. But how do we do it?

In my opinion, we will need to first accurately position ourselves and acknowledge that the original artists of the songs deserve every penny and dollar towards the joy that they’ve brought to us through their creativity. Secondly, there needs more of a common-sense balance between combating digital copyright infringements and reasonable use of the artists’ creative works. That is either through shared monetization between the artists’ studio, agency, or themselves and the sharer of their creative works. Third, the streaming services could also impose more advertising within the group of free music streamers to generate more profits for the artists themselves. It may also indirectly encourage more people to pay for a subscription service, although this move must be implemented industry-wide to avoid losing users. Finally, we have to acknowledge that piracy isn’t going away anytime soon, or worst, ever. Because where there is a market, there are risk-takers. Therefore, it is vital to continue to educate our people on the benefits and values of protecting intellectual property rights, not through acts of force or legal actions but by promoting commonly shared interests between the creator and consumers.

Works Cited

Record Industry Association of America. RIAA, 2020, MID-YEAR 2020 RIAA REVENUE STATISTICS, https://www.riaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Mid-Year-2020-RIAA-Revenue-Statistics.pdf. Accessed 20 Oct. 2021.

Jacob, Ennica. “How Much Does Spotify Pay per Stream? What You’ll Earn per Song, and How to Get Paid More for Your Music.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 24 Feb. 2021, https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-does-spotify-pay-per-stream.

Swash, Rosie. “95% Of Music Downloads Are Illegal.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 16 Jan. 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jan/16/online-music-illegal-downloads.

Spajić, Damjan Jugović, et al. “Piracy Is Back: Piracy Statistics for 2021.” DataProt, 29 June 2021, https://dataprot.net/statistics/piracy-statistics/.