The incredible ability of the Internet to link together our world would at first seem to be a great boon to musicians worldwide, but for many musicians, it is still a struggle to earn the recognition they deserve.
Music streaming and Internet radio services, such as Spotify and Pandora, are incredibly beneficial to the listener, but the actual musicians often find themselves making little to no money off of their music.
On top of this, despite the potential exposure, the most played music on Internet services is no different than what is played on traditional radio format.
When music services offer mainstream artists to listeners so heavily, they put listeners into a position where they do not need to challenge themselves. People become comfortable listening to whatever is trendy and conform with whatever the flavor of the month is musically.
The Internet has the potential to present listeners with all kinds of new music, but more often than not, it presents them with music that does not need to be searched for. Often times, Internet music services do not do a good job of providing exposure for musicians who are in need of it, and instead, give it to artists who are already well-known.
Spotify, which has one of the largest market shares of music streaming sites, offers users the option to browse through recent releases in an effort to help them find new music. The problem is, the releases that Spotify focuses on are artists like One Direction, Fetty Wap and Sam Smith, all of which have tens of millions of listeners anyway.
They do not need assistance in finding new fans as they are all supported by major record label marketing departments.
On the other hand, there are countless artists of every genre from all parts of the world desperate for fans, and the opportunity to assist these artists is consistently passed over in favor of major artists. The way the current system exists, a small amount of artists in a limited array of genres are granted opportunities to succeed, and those outside this range are considered niche.
The industry seems to be unwilling on taking risks on promoting artists that do not fit the current trends.
This is saddening, because the power of these online streaming services is that at a relatively low cost, any artist can be pumped up and given helpful exposure.
It is not prohibitively expensive to provide a Tulsa, Oklahoma, folk punk band or an R&B artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina, a few advertisements and promotions in the main pages of a streaming service.
These Internet services have a responsibility to become the platform that promotes artists out of obscurity. Years ago, television was the platform that successfully promoted artists of all kinds. Shows like 120 Minutes, HeadBanger’s Ball and Amp all successfully provided exposure to artist in genre’s that did not directly hit a large audience.
The Internet has the ability to provide the same kind of benefits to artists that television once did.
It has a massive audience, and there are some steps being made in the correct direction. Spotify recently has changed its method of recommending music to users, which used to just provide a handful of artists that were related to what the listener has been hearing recently, before beginning to recommend top 40 artists.
In the past, fans and artists spread their favorite music through zines, a type of self-published periodical.
These zines spread the word about niche genres and local scenes throughout the world. The internet has a similar method to this in the concept of music blogs and websites like Pitchfork and Punknews.org, along with countless small sites.
These sites fill a similar purpose in getting the word out about artists that do not have the backing of a well-funded marketing department.
It would be transformative for the major music streaming services to begin working hand-in-hand with these types of sites in order to build exposure for more artists.
The landscape of popular music could quickly shift if artists from all genres were promoted equitably.
As far as individuals are concerned, every share on social media can help a struggling artist. Sites like Bandcamp and Soundcloud are filled with talented young artists looking for some notice. All it takes is a few minutes listening to various songs to be blown away by a song. After hearing it, a share on social media can quickly multiply the number of listeners an artist has.
These are small steps, but more can be done.
There will always be top 40 artists with massive popularity and exposure, but if music services begin to play fairer, the gap between the obscure and the mainstream will lessen, and people will be exposed to the wonderful musical diversity they are missing.
Corey Krajewski is a Staff Writer for the Bona Venture. His email is
krajewcj11@bonaventure.edu
