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I've been thinking about Spotify from the perspective of An Old, which I certainly am now. I spent almost all of my free money on CDs in high school / college, because I very much wanted to hear different music and the only sure-fire way was to purchase it.
There were cheats back then. You could dub an album on cassette if a friend had it (mine didn't), you could scour the dollar-bin for winners (I absolutely did), you could do Columbia House or BMG and not pay or determine the cheapest out. I wanted to hear as much as I could.
I bought a lot of bad CDs back then! What I heard was dependent on availability and price. If I paid full price for something, I'd try to get that value from it. I cannot process how much different my HS tastes would've been if I could have paid $10 a month for All The Music.
Even after mp3s/file-sharing took hold in college, I still bought as much music as I could. Physical media was always the end goal. I downloaded songs so I could make smarter decisions with my money. I did not always have that much of it.
I remember being at Parasol Records and this conversation came up with one of the older employees, who was aghast / dismayed that I'd used music clubs -and- downloaded mp3s. I was embarrassed because I really enjoyed hanging out at Parasol and buying albums.
In hindsight, I was at the opposite end of the generational gap I now sit at regarding Spotify. Said employee wasn't wrong to be dismayed. He worked for a mail-order store and a record company, neither of which benefitted from file-sharing. I wasn't the villain, necessarily.
I still spent as much money as I possibly could on records & concerts & merch. I used file-sharing to spend that money smarter. I tried to buy new when possible. The bands I enjoyed needed my support to continue making music. Same with the labels, same with the record stores.
Would I have gotten to that point if I could have spent $10 a month and heard All The Music? I don't know. If I didn't have the imperative to spend all of my money on CDs so I could hear Slint or My Bloody Valentine or Shiner, I would've spent that money on something else!
Spotify is ingrained to the lifestyle of The Not Olds in a way I'll never fully comprehend, just like the Parasol employee couldn't get my relief at hearing things before I paid $12.99 for them. If you're used to having All The Music for $10 a month, how do you give that up?
Music now feels like a right in a way that makes me uncomfortable. There's no effort and barely any cost to hear the majority of music. Everyone has access. You can share playlists without dubbing cassettes or burning CDs. In theory (for the listener, at least), that's great.
In actuality, it's a mess. Paying a pittance (if anything) for access to something instead of Owning It (in the olde sense of the word) has blurred the lines between the two. If I taped a song off the radio, it was the start of a process, not the end point.
The process itself has changed, in part because Spotify -feels- like the end point. Unless its users gotten into vinyl, perhaps as a novelty, streaming probably feels like enough. The song is there, at your fingertips, in pristine quality. What more do you need?
That's from the modern listener's perspective. I'm fortunate enough to have met many of my favorite bands over the years, none of whom sell out stadiums or reside on major labels. The grinding they have to do to modernize that streamer > supporter process is devastating.
Bandcamp Fridays and cool merch and limited-edition vinyl pressings and Patreons, it all helps, but none of it is as easy as Spotify. If streaming listeners have $10 to spare for music in a month, will it go to a download of one album or All The Music?
The bands I like don't make any significant money from Spotify. But they can't leave Spotify, because if you're not on it, you essentially do not exist for a large number of listeners. I do not envy their position.
Bringing up this issue often doesn't go over well with listeners raised on Spotify. Being asked to support your favorite bands is perceived as begging or chastising. There's no comfortable way to ask for money, not now, during all of this (waves hands around).
But it costs money to record / release music, let alone be alive for the writing process. Your favorite band could simply stop existing. I predict that without touring for over a year, many will. Not everyone can afford buy each LP, a shirt, etc. But streaming is not supporting.
I doubt me, An Old, saying this will change any Spotify-only users' minds. I don't enjoy moralizing either! But don't take access to All The Music for granted. If an album matters -that much-, take a month off Spotify and give that band your $10. Maybe they'll make another one.
