Spotify’s 10 year anniversary in Denmark was celebrated at this years SPOT Festival with a seminar where the business gathers to discuss the streaming service’s effect on the industry, the listeners and the music
The seminar on Friday was yet another crowded room where the music business gathered around to discuss Spotify on the occasion of their 10th Danish anniversary. The focus was on the money and how Spotify has changed the music industry.
There has been a change in the music industry and moderator Jesper Bay presented some hard numbers which showed that today’s digital turnover constitutes 92,7% of the Danish music market (IFPI, 2020). Spotify has had a massive influence on the users music consumption and the music companies turnover. Their income is halved in relation to what they traded for 20 years ago. The decline has forced the business to rethink distribution, how music is created and how it can be sold.
“Spotify has changed everything about what music is – or they are changing it now. Today there’s a new way of creating music,” said Anders Reuter, Ph.D in Music Science and explained further how digital platforms do so the music is never really finished. You can always correct, re-upload and so on.
This also means that you can test the market in a different way than before. An album doesn’t have to be complete and to be sold physically. Today we see Kanye West releasing an album from one day to another while he continues to edit the music. There can always be an extra artist added to give the song new life – like Beyoncé does on Megan Thee Stallions ‘Savage’ and Ariana Grande on The Weeknd’s ‘Save Your Tears’.
Spotify and the streaming services have had an immense impact on the industry and Reuter further elaborates that “there has been a change in the way we listen to music. We don’t listen to specific genres anymore, we listen after the connection.”
The change has happened along with the music being more accessible. We listen to music all the time. While we walk, ride our bikes, are at a restaurant and so on. That is why we chose a playlist which matches our activities and mood. And by that Spotify also has the power to choose which songs get on which playlists – and thereby who get the opportunity for success.
Photo: Allan Niss