We Need A Review Of The Entire Music Ecosystem

In the U.K., there is an ongoing soap opera, via the Department of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) enquiry into music streaming. Here’s the session. What it shows is that we don’t just need a review into streaming. We need a review of the entire music ecosystem.

Streaming is very complex, and there are smarter people than me who analysed the session (read Tim Ingham, Stuart Dredge or Eamonn Forde). The crux is that streaming — like all business — has winners and losers. And with the collapse of live revenues, the issues in how streaming pays (or doesn’t) is being discussed. Ingham calculates that 1% of all artists receive 90% of the revenue from streaming. That’s about 43,000 artists. Of that 1%, many have been significantly impacted by COVID, as their streaming income has not replaced their live income. The other 99%, around 3 million artists, earn the other 10%. And remember, the race to being the 1% can only be won by 1%. This isn’t fair, but it is business.

What’s even more glaring is what is not being said (as is always the case). These sessions argue that what matters most — in regards to music is its function and ‘fairness’ as an industry. The internal value of music dominates. The external value of music is ubiquitous. But no industry is fair. Few brands of cereal make it to supermarket shelves. Few trained astronauts make it to space. Music is not just an industry. This is being ignored.

Reform is sorely needed, but the vast majority of artists who upload music will never accumulate enough fans for streaming to be their main breadwinner. I would argue that doing what we can to better support the 99%, because the industry isn’t going to prioritise them, is our opportunity. It could mean more revenues, more music in communities, more experimentation and maybe more getting closer to the 1%. This hearing shows how clueless many are to the fact that the entire ecosystem needs reform. Not just streaming.

Here’s what’s happening now in the U.K.

Yes, the way the commercial music industry operates is in need of reform. But like all solutions, the solution is complex. Opportunities for artists now are greater than they have ever been. Artists can, should they wish, find independent partners to support their music rather than rely on multinationals. But as it has always been, there are few winners.

But what remains constant is the role that music plays in our daily lives and how we take it for granted. Music is what brings us together. It unites us. It is our uplifter, our crutch, a familiar face, our consoler, our companion. Yet, in 2021 — after a year that has demonstrated what we all lose if we don’t change — we still do not equate our need for music by investing in it as an ecosystem at a local level, everywhere. Instead, we victimize artists. They need relief, not investment. Couple that with a hearing where it could be suggested that MPs expect multinationals to fix issues that are in fact MPs to solve. These are the same MPs (and their colleagues) who represent constituencies whose music services have closed; who, prior to the pandemic had few or no venues. Places where music is a nice to have, not a need to have. But multinationals are to blame. Not entirely.

We must reorganise our priorities in 2021. This is an opportunity, a good thing. The music industry has to change, but it is not going to solve the systemic problems that make inequity ubiquitous.

That’s on all of us.