We all know the music industry isn’t in a good place right now. Sales are down and artist are not happy. So it made me think? Why don’t the Big 3 (Universal, Warner & Sony) just come together and make their own streaming service with all their music, instead of sharing profits with Spotify and Apple Music? I don’t get it.

Film/TV industries have their own dedicated services like Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, etc. They don’t have a middle man taking a cut like Cable. Obviously, the Big 3 would need to come together to make this happen. Having 1 music service strictly for just 1 of them is a bad idea.

I just think Spotify & Apple are benefitting from this way more than the labels. And with Spotify paying HUGE amounts to the likes of Joe Rogan 😒. It’s kind of a slap in the face of the industry that MADE them this big. Like why is the Talk Tuah podcast getting just as big of bags as the labels & Artist? I know Jay Z tried his own service ran strictly by the artist called Tidal like 10 years ago, but he couldn’t get enough big artist to invest into it long term.

Can someone PLEASE explain to me why the Music Industry allows this?

  • macattack@lemmy.world
    0·
    15 days ago

    IIRC, the music industry was in decline long before Spotify was made. The transition period before Spotify was just illegally downloading everything through Limewire/Kazaa/Napster etc.

    Also, the reason podcasts make money is because they can produce something that brings audiences in on a weekly basis. The music industry OTOH has artists that make an album a year or less. It’s not as sustainable and it’s harder to sell ads against.

    I don’t think more segmentation is a wanted solution by consumers either. Consumers would much rather use one app for all platforms than have to buy a different streaming service every time they want to listen to a new album.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
      0·
      15 days ago

      Yeah the '90s was the big heyday for the music industry when they used to charge us $25 (in 1990s dollars, $48 today) for a CD with 2 good songs and a bunch of filler. That ended quickly as, like you said, Napster and the like came on scene. Then we got the iPod and iTunes and a slew of ‘ringtone companies’ where you could buy songs individually for a dollar or two until streaming took off.

      They’ve never recovered to the level they were at back then because there are just too many options now and they don’t control them all.

      • Kelly@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        15 days ago

        Nothing has been as big as CDs but total revenue has been growing since 2015.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
            0·
            15 days ago

            The total height represents sales of each format in relation to the others. The timeline isn’t the zero line like you might be thinking. $0 would be the bottom of the graph at any given time.