Streaming- The New Music Money

Over the years music consumption has undergone evolution from vinyl to cassette to CDs and now streaming has taken the center stage. Its introduction has taken a few years to settle in but with its current impact worldwide; what was once termed the future of music consumption is now a reality.

Artists from different parts of the world have their music on streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Jay Z powered Tidal and a host of others. As the minutes tick by, these songs are streamed by music consumers who pay monthly subscriptions to access the music; this in turn translates to revenue for the artists.

Wizkid, arguably Africa’s biggest act at the moment made a whopping 72 million naira from Spotify over the last 12 months alone according to the ace video director Adasa Cookey. Canadian superstar Drake is the world most streamed artist hitting ten billion streams on Spotify.

With this backdrop, record labels have shifted their attention to this market which provides significant revenue for them, coming up with various strategies for their artists for the numbers. Apart from the revenues; these streaming platforms afford little known artists the room to hug the spotlight. Various streaming sites have playlists cutting across all genres of music. This playlist serves as a co-sign of some sort for these artists who get their songs included alongside the big stars’.

Change which is inevitable has come into the music business in form of streaming and musicians are embracing this new evolution in music distribution for gains and benefits.

Drake Wizkid