Mark Runyon | ConcertTour.org
“I was very lucky to meet a very good sufi teacher who started to introduce the idea of “if you sit with your experiences and the things you’ve been through, they alchemize. At the time he said that, I didn’t really know what that meant, but I trusted that it would work, and the more that I was learning about that, the more music just started flowing through.” So stated Chris Martin of the (kind of daft) concept for Coldplay’s new album Ghost Stories, despite the fact the music won’t be flowing through any streaming services, as the band revert to the controversial actually-buying-the-album trick.
And this isn’t the first time this has occurred in recent months either. Beyonce’s last self-titled album has yet to appear on Spotify, and the Black Keys most recent effort Turn Blue made few appearances on streaming services. It’s officially a trend now. With many artists and fans alike speaking out against the likes of Spotify, what does this mean for the future of big album releases — both for the artist and the fan?
For a lot of fans, it simply means they can’t listen to a much-anticipated new album until it does turn up somewhere online (which, legally or otherwise, it almost inevitably will) or actually go out and purchase a copy themselves. This seems like a risky move for the artist — what if fans, deterred by the lack of convenience and availability, just don’t bother with the album at all?
The internet has meant that it’s almost a given that music is available all the time, whenever you fancy it. If you pluck any song from your memory banks, I can guarantee you’ll be able to find it somewhere on the internet in less than a minute. I mean, hearing a song you liked on the radio but missed the name of meant just hanging around till it was played again. Now there’s an app that recognizes songs after only a few bars, delivering the music to you there and then. The good news regarding this kind of access to music is, of course, a huge number of independent and upcoming artists get the kind of exposure they could only dream of before the internet existed. Think of any unlikely mash-up of genres, and somebody somewhere will have done it. No corner is left untapped in the music industry, mainly because fans won’t let them stay untapped.
But what does this mean for the bigger bands? The ones who have already spent the time and effort and money required to make themselves big in a pre-streaming age? Take the three examples I gave at the start of this article — Beyonce, Black Keys, and Coldplay. All of these bands are extremely well known right now. They have sold millions of albums, played a bunch of sold-out tours, and garner fans the world over. So why risk that by refusing to let those fans access your music in the way they are probably most comfortable with?
Some of it surely comes down to exclusivity — the idea that if you’re going out to purchase the album and own it while thousands of other fans will be idly keeping an eye out for when it appears on Spotify (which currently has the tetchy message “The artist or their representatives have decided not to release this album on Spotify. We are working on it and hope they will change their mind soon.” where the Ghost Stories album should be) suggests a certain level of fandom that would be appealing to some music lovers. There’s also the obvious point to be made regarding the effect of downloads and streaming sites on album sales. If people can regularly and easily access the music they want to listen to for a fraction of the price of buying an album, then most sane people will take that option. The romance in purchasing a record so you can thumb through the lyric book and play the CD till it starts jumping and catching has been replaced by the convenience of streaming, and these artists are trying to reclaim some of that romance.
I think what it comes down to in the end is a brazen display of confidence. These artists know they have fans. They know they have fans who will fall all over themselves to buy their latest album. They know they have fans who count down the days till the next one is released. They know they have fans who’ll hang on their every song, single, and behind-the-scenes video. And, most importantly, they’re proving to the rest of the music industry that they’ve got these kinds of fans by eschewing streaming services and knowing for certain that they’re still going to blow everyone else out of the water.
Coldplay Shuns Streaming Ghost Stories. Will Other Bands Follow Suit?
“I was very lucky to meet a very good sufi teacher who started to introduce the idea of “if you sit with your experiences and the things you’ve been through, they alchemize. At the time he said that, I didn’t really know what that meant, but I trusted that it would work, and the more that I was learning about that, the more music just started flowing through.” So stated Chris Martin of the (kind of daft) concept for Coldplay’s new album Ghost Stories, despite the fact the music won’t be flowing through any streaming services, as the band revert to the controversial actually-buying-the-album trick.
And this isn’t the first time this has occurred in recent months either. Beyonce’s last self-titled album has yet to appear on Spotify, and the Black Keys most recent effort Turn Blue made few appearances on streaming services. It’s officially a trend now. With many artists and fans alike speaking out against the likes of Spotify, what does this mean for the future of big album releases — both for the artist and the fan?
For a lot of fans, it simply means they can’t listen to a much-anticipated new album until it does turn up somewhere online (which, legally or otherwise, it almost inevitably will) or actually go out and purchase a copy themselves. This seems like a risky move for the artist — what if fans, deterred by the lack of convenience and availability, just don’t bother with the album at all?
The internet has meant that it’s almost a given that music is available all the time, whenever you fancy it. If you pluck any song from your memory banks, I can guarantee you’ll be able to find it somewhere on the internet in less than a minute. I mean, hearing a song you liked on the radio but missed the name of meant just hanging around till it was played again. Now there’s an app that recognizes songs after only a few bars, delivering the music to you there and then. The good news regarding this kind of access to music is, of course, a huge number of independent and upcoming artists get the kind of exposure they could only dream of before the internet existed. Think of any unlikely mash-up of genres, and somebody somewhere will have done it. No corner is left untapped in the music industry, mainly because fans won’t let them stay untapped.
But what does this mean for the bigger bands? The ones who have already spent the time and effort and money required to make themselves big in a pre-streaming age? Take the three examples I gave at the start of this article — Beyonce, Black Keys, and Coldplay. All of these bands are extremely well known right now. They have sold millions of albums, played a bunch of sold-out tours, and garner fans the world over. So why risk that by refusing to let those fans access your music in the way they are probably most comfortable with?
Some of it surely comes down to exclusivity — the idea that if you’re going out to purchase the album and own it while thousands of other fans will be idly keeping an eye out for when it appears on Spotify (which currently has the tetchy message “The artist or their representatives have decided not to release this album on Spotify. We are working on it and hope they will change their mind soon.” where the Ghost Stories album should be) suggests a certain level of fandom that would be appealing to some music lovers. There’s also the obvious point to be made regarding the effect of downloads and streaming sites on album sales. If people can regularly and easily access the music they want to listen to for a fraction of the price of buying an album, then most sane people will take that option. The romance in purchasing a record so you can thumb through the lyric book and play the CD till it starts jumping and catching has been replaced by the convenience of streaming, and these artists are trying to reclaim some of that romance.
I think what it comes down to in the end is a brazen display of confidence. These artists know they have fans. They know they have fans who will fall all over themselves to buy their latest album. They know they have fans who count down the days till the next one is released. They know they have fans who’ll hang on their every song, single, and behind-the-scenes video. And, most importantly, they’re proving to the rest of the music industry that they’ve got these kinds of fans by eschewing streaming services and knowing for certain that they’re still going to blow everyone else out of the water.
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