Change is inevitable. The only thing constant in life is change, although sometimes painful, change cannot be escaped.
As the times have passed music has morphed into a plethora of forms and this metamorphosis is ever so present that music is now deemed “unboxabale”. If beauty is in the eyes of the beholder then music is in the ears of the groover.
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While the art of music itself has witnessed many changes over the years; from the wordless compositions of the classists like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach to the politically charged offerings of Nigerian Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, American hip hop group Public Enemy to the sample-heavy style of American Producer-Artist, Kanye West and Nigerian Producer-Artist, CKay who recently interpolated Beethoven’s 5th Symphony with the rhythmic infectious bounce of Afro-pop to birth his single Way. The delivery of music to the final consumers has witnessed significant changes in the early 2010s in a bid to adapt to the times, meet consumer demands, combat piracy and make music a product again.
With the advent of the internet, free music became a norm. The consumers asked “Why buy an album off the shelf when we can download for free? We paid for the internet data after all”. The artists asked “Why am I not getting paid as much as before? Changes might have been made to my percentage cut without my knowledge”. The record labels ask “how else can we make money? Music sales aren’t cutting it”.
The tech guys had one answer to the problems of music sales and it came in the form of Music Streaming.
Music Streaming is the delivery of songs to your mobile phone, personal computer or tablet without any requirement to download and save on your device’s memory before the music can be listened to. It can be seen in literal terms as a stream of music pushed to us by the current of the stream (internet in this case). It’s endless and there are no limitations to what can be listened to.
The technicality to the process of streaming can be explained this; small packets of the audio file are issued so the data plays immediately on the device being used for streaming. So far as the internet connection is not interrupted, small packets of audio data are continuously dished out and the music keeps streaming. Certain things are involved and need to be in place before streaming can occur; A server/internet that sends the streaming information in form of signals to device which has a decoder embedded in it and then transforms the signal to music in its consumable, enjoyable form.
It is worthy to note that some streaming services allow for downloads as a secondary feature.
The Business of Streaming
Everything of value comes with a charge. Whether hidden or visible, tangible or intangible – you will be charged. Streaming is no exception.
In a bid to combat dwindling revenues from record sales, slow album sales due to the parasite known as piracy, Spotify was launched in the year 2006 by two men of Swedish origin; Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. They developed a system where users could legally stream music—either by paying a subscription fee for premium service, or for free if they agree to listen to advertisements. This ensured the issuing of due royalties to artists and labels. A 2019 report from Statista shows Spotify has the largest share of subscribers when it comes to music streaming with 36%. That is almost double of the market share enjoyed by their closest competitor. Spotify pays artists $0.004 (an equivalent of N1.44) per stream as royalties.
Nine years after the introduction of Spotify, a not so new player tapped into the streaming business in the form of Apple Music, developed by Apple Inc, the brainchild of innovator, icon and all-round genius – Steve Jobs. Holding 19% of the music streaming market share and standing as the second largest music streaming service in the world, Apple Music allows users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing, curated playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio station Beats 1, which broadcasts live to over 100 countries 24 hours a day. Apple endears listeners to their streaming platform through a three month free trial which gives an irresistible taste of the streaming life. After this free trial period, users in Nigeria are charged N900 per month to subscribe to the service. Apple Music pays artistes $0.00735 per stream that equates to $7350 for a million streams. Converting to the Nigerian Naira at N360 exchange rate, artistes get N2.6 per stream and N2,600,000 for a million streams. Other than music streaming, Apple Music also allows for music download. This means downloaded music can be listened to without connecting to the internet, however, they become inaccessible upon subscription expiration. Apple Music measures one song download as equal to one hundred and fifty streams. Meaning for every song downloaded on Apple Music, artistes and their labels get paid approximately N400. A thousand downloads of one song is therefore approximately N400,000.
In an interesting plot twist, while these streaming platforms aid in ensuring that artists get paid for their creative efforts, Billionaire Hip Hop artist, Shawn Carter AKA Jay-Z chose to own a Streaming Service instead. Jay-Z launched Tidal in the year 2015 after acquiring it from Norwegian Company, Aspiro. Although Tidal has the smallest market share when compared to the Juggernauts of music streaming services, it pays the most to artists at $0.01 (N3.6) per stream.
Bringing it home, Boomplay, a media streaming and download service developed by Transsnet Music Limited launched in Nigeria in 2015 via TECNO’s first music phone Boom J7. Two years after its launch it was given the award for the best African app at the 2015 AppsAfrica Awards. Boomplay boasts of 46million users with a catalogue of about 5 million songs and videos. No small feat by a mile. On April 5, 2019, Boomplay announced to the general public it has raised $20 million in Series A funding to continue its rapid expansion in Africa as its biggest Streaming Platform.
Streaming services have breathed life into the dying sales of music records. They are gradually stifling piracy and have given the music industry and her stakeholders something to smile to the bank about. Beyond money music streams are a source of respect. The more streams artists has, the more hats are doffed at his or her feet. Charts from streaming services also give more credibility to artists and exposure to previously overlooked efforts.
What a time to be alive.
