A Fresh Look at User-Centric Streaming Payments

a.k.a. A new study suggests that switching to user-centric payments would shake up the streaming landscape, but wouldn't necessarily fix a broken system.

Every time I write about streaming, I actively hope it’s the last time. That’s not because I’m no longer interested in the topic; I’m still very capable of getting on my soapbox and laying out why I think streaming has been a net negative, especially for independent music culture, but I no longer feel terribly compelled to do so. Those arguments have already been made countless times, both by critics who are more eloquent than I am and by folks with much larger platforms than First Floor. The idea that “streaming might actually be bad for music” is no longer some niche perspective; it’s fully out there in the world, and at least within the media, it’s now been given a lot more credence than the old “Spotify saved the music industry” narrative that used to dominate the discourse.

Here’s the thing though: consumers don’t seem to care.

Back in March, I wrote about this in greater detail, and while I’m not going to rehash the entire piece, this one passage is worth repeating:

Consumers didn’t create this system, but in 2023, they are accustomed to it, and if their current spending habits are any indication, they don’t seem terribly bothered by how streaming has negatively impacted artists or the larger musical landscape. Spotify has weathered literally years of bad press and vocal critiques from a number of verifiable musical icons, and yet the company’s customer base continues to grow larger and larger. Perhaps that says something about our society’s collective ethical failings or how “doing the right thing” is often not a priority in a capitalist system, but on a simpler level, music consumers are rational actors, and regardless of how they feel about Spotify or any other company, they likely recognize that when it comes to streaming, they’re getting a pretty amazing deal.

Not much has changed on the streaming front since I wrote those words, although just a few weeks ago, Spotify did finally follow Apple Music’s lead and increase prices for its ad-free Premium tier in 53 countries. That helped to trigger a notable drop in the company’s stock price, but Spotify stock is still up overall this year, and its total of monthly active users has continued to swell, reaching 551 million people worldwide. At least for now, Spotify doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, and even if it were to somehow go belly up, there’s little question that streaming would remain the go-to listening method for the vast majority of music consumers.

So… why exactly am I writing about streaming again? Because after years of seeing the same arguments endlessly lobbied back and forth, I recently came across someone—and more specifically, some data—that had something new to say.