Buying music digitally has always been something of an outlier economically. Music companies were initially reluctant to sell their music online. Many worried that putting their music online in digital format would lead to an explosion in piracy that would crumble the industry itself. Of course, many of these people said the same thing about CDs. As we now know, selling music online was ultimately a boon for the music industry.
Now that music streaming has become commonplace, the number of people purchasing music digitally has fallen steadily. But the market is still very much alive. One of the key players in the digital music market today is eMusic. According to a recent survey from eMusic, 65% of their customers would use cryptocurrencies to purchase their music digitally if they had the option.
Crypto Conundrums
Cryptocurrencies have been gaining popularity steadily over the last decade. What was once a very niche curiosity, only of interest to a select group of nerds, is now one of the most essential concepts in 21st-century economics. Some people are purchasing cryptocurrencies as assets that they hope will increase in value. But there is still a dedicated effort underway that aims to make cryptocurrencies as easy to use and as widely accepted as regular fiat currencies.
Slowly but surely, cryptocurrencies have been gaining more widespread acceptance. There are already numerous digital services that you can pay for using cryptocurrencies. For example, the online casino mBit Casino now accept cryptocurrency payments. This means that players can gamble with the casino without having to hand over their bank or card details.
Artists’ Compensation
The survey from eMusic revealed several interesting details. For example, 40% of their users overestimated how much artists receive in royalties from streaming. The gap in public perceptions about artists’ pay and the actual terms of their contracts with streaming services like Spotify is indicative of a wider problem.
The arrangements between record labels and streaming services ensure that the label is compensated appropriately, while the streaming service benefits from expanding their catalog. However, the artists themselves are drawing the short straw.
Raising Awareness
Most of us assume that Spotify and Co are compensating the artists whose music we stream appropriately. It doesn’t ever occur to most people that this might not be the case.
If more people were aware of this discrepancy and the relatively meager amounts of money paid to their favorite artists, they would likely be willing to pay for their music instead. EMusic’s survey backs up this supposition.
Paying for digital music has fallen out of favor with many people, but it is far from a dead industry. Using crypto to pay for music isn’t just more convenient for users. Paying artists with crypto makes external auditing possible.
Contrary to popular belief, music consumers do care about the compensation artists receive. As more people come to understand just how little most artists receive from Spotify, there will be louder calls for an alternative. Digital music stores that accept cryptocurrencies would be a viable choice.
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