The effects of music streaming services on the independent record music market in the UK; a case study of Spotify.

Abstract

A number of academics have discussed what has been happening to the music industry since the first widely successful peer-to-peer service Napster shook the foundations of all creative industries (Galuszka, 2015). On-demand music streaming services have arisen claiming to restore the music industry back to its previous excellence. In recent years, these services have established themselves as leading music consumption platforms. However, streaming has fallen under criticism in regard to small returns of royalty payments, sparking controversial debates about its fairness. This research investigates the role Spotify, one of the most established streaming services, plays in relation to independent record labels and artists in the UK. It provides an overview of the discourses surrounding digital music streaming services' impact by analysing perceptions of independent musicians and labels. The wider issues addressed in the research, concerning changes in cultural values of the musical commodity as well as the effect of technology on the economic rewards for produced and recorded music, are transferable and apply to all online on-demand streaming providers (Marshall, 2015).