Music, Expression, & The Forces That Shape Human Experience
28 Making It in Music Is Possible, but It’s Not the Goal
Jaron Higgs
One thing that we can be sure of however is that as long as there are people, there will be music, and as long as those people are passionate, they will find a way to create and they will find a way to make it in this competitive world.
Writing Reflection
I thought writing about music was going to be easy. I am very passionate about music, and I have noticed throughout the years that musicians don’t seem to be paid a lot of money. While the volume of music has skyrocketed in recent years, so has the competition, and it has created an interesting dynamic that anyone trying to make music needs to consider. What I found as I researched the topic of making money from music is that it seemed almost impossible for me to argue either that the system we have is fair or that it is unfair because it is so complex and controlled by so many ethereal factors, such as the whims of human fancy. Instead, I attempted to break down why the money cannot be the focus, but rather the passion from which creation ensues.
This essay was composed in November 2024 and uses MLA documentation.
The muse is a concept that has captured the minds of the masses throughout history. These nine goddesses of ancient Greece seem to possess the minds of many a young artist, allowing him to produce wonderfully creative works as if effortlessly. These muses seem to have possessed this entire generation of the world’s musicians and caused an unprecedented influx of songs. Spotify has a reported library of over 100 million songs by the end of 2023, and it is expected that 2024 will have brought as many as 22 million additional songs (Monga). Overall music revenue is at an all-time high, as well as the overall volume of songs created. Even taking into consideration the fact that many of these songs are not meaningful or new—some being remixes and others pirated and others still having no artistic merit—this is still a staggering number. These kinds of numbers are an indication that the music industry has never been more competitive, and as such, getting noticed as an artist is now tremendously difficult, even more so than the historically Herculean task of a record label giving an artist a break.
As I first began to investigate what artists were doing to make money in music in the third decade of the 21st century, I had expected to find a system that was rigged and unfairly biased against any person just starting out. I figured that any musician would have a disaster of a time trying to get noticed among the endless deluge of content and fanfare of the modern internet, and what’s more, that even if a musician were to be noticed, it would be highly unlikely for him to be able to make a living. While a system that was rigged wasn’t exactly what I found, one that is just as hard to be successful in was. As one Rachel Hurley, a music publicity journalist, wrote in an opinion piece at Rock the Pigeon: A DIY Community Blog, “The real issue is that music is an over saturated market.” She went on to explain that many people look at big corporations like Spotify and at record labels and other intermediaries as the enemy, the villain who is stealing money from artists and making money off their backs, but this is simply not the case. Truly, things are more a matter of supply and demand. As I continued to research, I found that although it is true that most aspiring musicians will not be able to make a living wage from their music, the music industry is one that can generously reward any person who has a little bit of talent and is willing to put in the work necessary to be successful. The system is a cutthroat one, but it is one that can be optimized and utilized. Even so, any young musician who wants to enter the music industry and expects to become a millionaire should rethink. The only reason someone should try to make it in music is because they are passionate about music and its creation. If it’s for any other reason, it won’t be worth it. The reasons why will be addressed.
Before such a problem as distribution of money in the music industry can be addressed, however, some background is necessary. There are many ways to make an income from following the creative muse of music, from the mainstream to the underground. According to Ditto Music, a music distribution company, there are ten main ways to make money from music, and they are as follows: “Streaming Royalties”; “Music Publishing; Merchandise”; “Touring & Live Shows”; “Physical Sales”; “Sync Deals”; “Brand Partnerships”; “Crowdfunding; Music Libraries”; and “Teach[ing] What You Know”. Streaming makes up the lion’s share of total music revenue at around sixty-seven percent, with physical sales coming second and performance rights coming third (see figure 1). Seeing as streaming is the most popular form of music consumption globally, trouncing any competition, it makes sense to begin with an in-depth analysis of the music streaming industry, with all its strengths and weaknesses. Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world, holding about thirty percent of the total market share for streaming apps. Spotify will thus be the archetype for the discussion surrounding streaming. Most platforms run their business models similarly to Spotify and any notable exceptions will be mentioned.
A good working definition of music streaming according to Lifewire, a tech blog, is “a method of feeding audio content to your device directly, without requiring you to download files from the internet” (Harris). Music streaming in and of itself can be a difficult way for an artist to make an income. For one, it is a very competitive industry with millions of artists on the platform. While it is hard to get an exact count, there are an estimated 11 million artists on Spotify and an estimated 626 million active monthly users as of 2024 (Singh). This volume has given more people than ever access to a variety of songs, but it has made it very difficult to be noticed, and it has presented some problems, such as what could be seen as a devaluing of music (Hurley).
Of course, the music industry has always been known to be cutthroat and as such it would be expected that not everyone will be able to make it. However, it is shocking to consider just how difficult it is to make money on a music streaming service. On Spotify, the platform that has the most revenue compared to any other, it would take 1 million streams to get even as little as $3500. Statistically, you would have to be within the top 50,000 artists on Spotify to make even $16,500 in a year (“The Top 10”). This means that the vast majority of artists are unable to make any significant source of money. A minority make enough money to live on.
The low pay rates are far from the biggest problem with streaming services, however. There are many other problems that are indicative of a deeper problem with music streaming and ones that, if not remedied, could spell the end for music streaming companies. The biggest of these problems is music streaming fraud, or in other words, gaming the system.
The way that a music streaming service works is when a user streams a song, there is a counter that goes up one tick so long as the user listens to at least thirty seconds of the song. The source of the listen has not been traditionally important, and neither is the content of the song. Thus, just about anything can be considered a song if it hits or exceeds thirty seconds in length. Many so-called artists have taken advantage of a loophole this creates to game the system. The most famous example of the loophole is what a band named Vulfpeck did. According to a news article released by The Verge, in 2014, Vulfpeck—a reputable and popular indie band—created a five-minute album with ten songs, each song about thirty seconds long. These songs were all silent; they played absolutely no sound. The band then asked its fans to stream the album at night or while they didn’t have anything else playing. This album ended up netting the band about $20,000 before Spotify asked the band to remove the album because it violated their terms of content. In this case, the band created this illegitimate album in hopes of helping to fund a tour at the time. However, there are other proclaimed artists that employ tactics like these and even more devious tactics for profit.
How would people do this when they don’t have a large following of fans? The simple answer is they commit fraud. According to Arkose Labs, they use bots, hacking, and streaming farms to artificially inflate listenership. This may take a variety of different forms, but the idea is that these bad actors try to take over or create as many accounts as possible and then they use these accounts to stream playlists of their music endlessly. They also will pirate legitimate music and manipulate it slightly in the hopes of generating streams. While it is possible to detect and combat this music fraud, it is still widespread and a constant issue and threat to companies.
Such fraudulent behavior as inflating numbers is just one part of the problem. Another is illegitimate music, just as Vulfpeck created. There are many artists that will upload long-form content of white noise, or what is called functional content (O’Donnell). This could be things like the sound of rain, or waves crashing on a beach, or even just the sound of wind. This uncreative content can then be utilized for monetary gain, despite not really being music. This kind of content is a lot more difficult to track and pin as fraud as it is not necessarily fraud on the face of it.
Why is this music streaming fraud such a problem for artists and for companies? First, it takes a significant amount of money away from legitimate artists and puts it into the hands of people who are not bringing any real value to the music industry. When people who create legitimate content are not able to be paid due to fraud, they are less likely to continue making said content. Secondly, companies will not be able to sustain paying illegitimate people money for an illegitimate product. Streaming companies already struggle to be profitable. Paying out any money to scammers makes becoming profitable even more difficult, and slowly digs a company further and further into the hole. In such a competitive market, music fraud makes thriving even more difficult.
If music fraud is such a problem, what is being done to combat it? There are many different things that companies are doing, but it all essentially boils down to system changes. Whether those changes are to the number of streams necessary to generate royalty payouts, or to the length of a stream necessary to count as a play, companies are striving to make the streaming environment as fair as they can. Spotify has changed the requirement for a functional noise track to 2 minutes stream time before it is counted. Deezer has totally eliminated white noise tracks from the monetization pool. Soundcloud has changed the system by which they calculate royalty payments (O’Donnell). Different companies are tackling the problem in different ways, but it is true that they are all working on it.
Is working on it enough, though, for an artist doing their best to make it? No matter what efforts these super massive companies make, streaming fraud will never be able to be eliminated, and even if it were to be, would it really make the system fair for anyone? Would simply addressing the issue of rising rates of music fraud help artists to get more money? Truth is, music industry saturation is at an all-time high and doesn’t seem to be stopping. The simple laws of supply and demand dictate that when something is in high supply with a steady demand, prices will drop. Songs these days are a dime a dozen. Just take a look at the stats earlier: 11 million artists. Can all these artists, even accounting for a significant portion of them being fake, really be paid? Or should we just accept that music is an industry where only the elite minority will ever be able to be successful and that everyone else will have to get by with their guitar straps and a prayer? Looking at the overall industry revenue and where that revenue is allocated can help give a better picture of what is really going on, and where hope may lie.
The total music revenue in 2023 was 28.6 billion dollars according to Statista, an organization which collects statistical information on various industries (refer to figure 2). This is an insanely vast number, and this number was largely caused due to music streaming. There has been a trend of decreasing music revenues since 1999, up until the introduction of mainstream music streaming. Music streaming, even despite its issues, has had a mostly positive effect on the music industry as a whole as it has significantly increased the total amount of money in the pool that artists may be able to make from. It turned a nose-diving industry into one that has finally begun to see growth again since the golden era of the turn of the century. One peer-reviewed article detailing many aspects of the modern music industry stated, “Importantly, however, in spite of sustained growth from 2015, overall revenue has not exceeded that of the ‘peak CD’ year of 2001” (Hesmondhalgh et al.).
Besides music streaming, the top grossing strategies to make money as an artist are (1) making physical sales of albums and merchandise and (2) performing. These together make up 27.3 percent of revenues (“Industry Data”). The largest tours in the world pull in millions upon millions of dollars for an artist and their associates. However, smaller performances and venues are no less serviceable and are a viable way for an artist to make an income. At these venues, money is brough in by both ticket sales and merchandise sales at the front gate. Artists can make at least a livable wage by doing this with a little bit of skill. While total revenue from CD and album sales are drastically different from the past, digital downloads are much more popular these days. They still make a relatively small share of revenue at only 3.2 percent (“Industry Data”), but this figures out to be a significant amount of money.
The last way an artist can make some money is by what is called synchronization rights. Synchronization rights are “the right to use a piece of music as soundtrack with visual images” (“Synchronization Rights”). In other words, any time that somebody plays a song for a video, in a movie, or in any other commercial capacity, they are required to pay sync rights fees. While sync rights are a comparable small portion of the total music industry revenue (see IFPI), 2.2 percent of 28.6 billion is $629,200,000. There are many artists who make soundtracks for movies and make a living off the rights to use their music. These artists don’t get the fame that artists in the spotlight do, but they are just as successful in their own way.
Now with a greater understanding of the amount of money that is being dealt with and where that money is being allocated, we can begin to understand what it would take for a music artist to be successful in the modern world. Even with the large amount of money, things look rather bleak. I will say it is possible. It is always possible. There have been many rags to riches stories of passionate musicians who started out in their parent’s basement. They didn’t have fame or money, but they did have passion. They had passion and talent and an unquenchable belief in themselves. And most importantly, these aspiring musicians worked hard. Sacrifices have to be made, but with those sacrifices there is hope.
However, the statistics are not favorable. According to the news outlet The New York Post, Spotify year-after-year struggles to be profitable (Thaler). Physical album sales across the industry are at an all-time low (Smith). Concerts and performances are always a solid way to make money, but they are only profitable after multiple sellout nights.
At the end of the day, everything laid out so far only goes to show that no matter how you look at it, music is not worth it for the money. It is not liquid gold like oil, nor is it Wall Street. This is to say, trying to get into music because you think it will be lucrative will only leave you begging on the streets. Streaming is massive and a wonderful opportunity but is filled with problems and rewards only a small percentage of participants. Other venues are becoming antiquated or are far too difficult to be reliably successful in. The volume of music is through the roof and only climbs by the day. Money and fame and anything like it cannot drive an artist.
No, rather, the passion from the muse is what must drive the aspiring artist. Even if not a soul were to listen to the art, this should not affect the artist. A true artist would continue to create his music only to express himself, even if he never receives a single dollar of remuneration. I think this is what many people lose sight of with the fast pace of creativity these days. The biggest artists pump out repetitive, unoriginal songs with little to no creative merit, just to make a quick buck, and just to stay relevant. The money will come when a great song is made. People love banger songs that are oozing with passion. People love artists with wide eyes and devotion to their craft. When they see this and they hear a truly amazing production, money cannot come fast enough. And if it doesn’t, at least there is the fulfillment of having done what you truly love and having done it in a way that is satisfying to you.
The modern music industry is far from perfect. Where it will go in the future, no one can predict. We can only hope it will continue to grow, and that quality music will continue to be produced and distributed. One thing that we can be sure of however is that as long as there are people, there will be music, and as long as those people are passionate, they will find a way to create and they will find a way to make it in this competitive world.
Works Cited
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Harris, Mark. “What Is Streaming Music?” Lifewire, 7 Jul. 2021, lifewire.com/what-is-streaming-music-2438445.
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“How to Make Money from Music in 2023.” Ditto Music, 21 Feb. 2023, dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-to-make-money-from-music.
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Smith, Dylan. “U.S. Recorded Music Revenue Topped $17 Billion in 2023 — But How Does That Figure Stack Up When Adjusted for Inflation?” Digital Music News, 3 Apr. 2024, digitalmusicnews.com/2024/04/03/recorded-music-industry-revenue-inflation-adjustment-2023/.
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Thaler, Shannon. “Spotify Has 600 Million Users, but Struggles to Consistently Turn a Profit.” 18 Jan. 2024, nypost.com/2024/01/18/business/spotify-has-600m-users-but-struggles-to-turn-a-profit/.
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Welch, Chris. “Spotify Removes Silent Album That Earned Indie Band $20,000.” The Verge, 7 May 2014, theverge.com/2014/5/7/5690590/spotify-removes-silent-album-that-earned-indie-band-20000.
“What Is Music Streaming Fraud?” Arkose Labs, 23 Jan. 2024, arkoselabs.com/explained/what-is-music-streaming-fraud/.
