PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Keyshawn Bridgeman listens to his music as he walks to the bus.
BY GABE MARTINEZ
LYNN — Always fertile ground for a revolution, the music industry has evolved from records to MP3s and is now experiencing the convenience and limitations of streaming.
Services like Spotify and Tidal bill themselves as convenient apps, offering fans their favorite music in one place, with listeners picking what they want to hear and when they want to hear it. This convenience comes with a price tag and a Salem State University professor said exclusive deals between musicians and streaming services are leaving fans without their favorite music.
Rapper Kanye West has an exclusive deal with Tidal, but pop singer Taylor Swift recently removed her music from Spotify, the world’s most popular streaming service, according to Billboard.
“The internet is rebelling. Kanye’s album is not doing well because it’s limiting, and same with Taylor Swift,” said Mike Testa, an assistant professor for music and technology at Salem State University.
Even in the face of rebellion, Testa said the industry will see more exclusive deals in the future.
“I think the industry is going to continue to cash in on the streaming services,” he said.
Spotify offers a free version of its service, while Tidal provides a 30-day free trial. The free version of Spotify does not allow users to skip songs, and contains advertisements during a listening session. Tidal’s trial, on the other hand, gives users the same access they would receive if they were paying for the service.
Anthony Ortiz, a Lynn native and fan of the rapper Drake, said he uses Soundcloud, another free streaming service.
“I bought ‘What A Time To Be Alive’ because I heard it was good,” Ortiz said. “If an album is good, I’ll buy it.”
Both Spotify and Tidal offer a monthly subscription plan that offers unlimited streaming with no ads. Spotify’s plan costs $9.99 a month. Tidal has two premium plans: One costs $9.99, while the other is $19.99. This may seem good in theory,but many fans are left without their favorite artists’ music due to exclusive deals between musicians and the services.
Swift fans can download Apple Music, another streaming service which also costs $9.99 a month, or download her music illegally.
However, West fans are not as lucky. He recently released a new album, “The Life of Pablo,” and due to West’s exclusive deal with Tidal, fans are only able to stream the album.
During one of his erratic Twitter rants, West said his new album would not be sold on iTunes, once the benchmark for new music, or sold in stores.
This does not bother some fans.
“I’m not paying extra money to subscribe to a service to listen to one album,” said Keyshawn Bridgeman, a student at North Shore Community College.” There are a lot more albums on Spotify.”
While West tries to promote his album, TLOP continues to be pirated. Two days after the album was released on Tidal, it was pirated more than 500,000 times, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Testa said he does not believe that these exclusive deals ultimately help artists.
“Most of the time artists are making their money on tours and (merchandise),” he said.
The numbers back him up. Spotify pays artists between 6 and 84 cents per stream. These miniscule numbers don’t necessarily affect big artists like West and Swift, but they do impact smaller ones.
“The kings right now are Spotify and Pandora,” Testa said. “If you aren’t releasing music on there, there’s a good chance it might not be heard.”
But some fans don’t want to render unto Caesar.
Gabe Martinez can be reached at gmartinez@itemlive.com follow him on Twitter @gemartinez92.