Are music streaming services really as bad as some artists paint them out to be? In the past, some of the industry's biggest names - from Taylor Swift and AC/DC to Adele and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke - have called out the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal for the paltry royalties they hand out to artists.
However, a recent study published by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) reveals that these companies may actually be boosting artists' record sales.
The study looked at a survey of 1,000 British music consumers to identify their listening and spending habits. According to the numbers, 66% of those surveyed identified as "multi-channel" listeners, which means they listen to music on a combination of formats such as radio, streaming, CD/Vinyl etc.
A lot of the respondents say that they use streaming services to discover new music then proceed to purchase retail copies of the songs and albums that they liked.
For example, 37% of those who identified as paying streamers claimed that using streaming services helped boost their spending on downloads.
Additionally, 19% of paying streamers said that streaming encouraged them to purchase more vinyl LPs, while 13% said that streaming increased their spending on CDs.
At last count, Spotify claimed to have over 20 million paid users. Which, by this study's findings, means that millions of users could be purchasing records they might have skipped otherwise, had they not been discovered via streaming first.
The one nitpick with these figures is their reliance on 'paying streamers'. In the study, those who labeled themselves as 'free-tier streamers' were much less likely to go out and purchase a physical copy after getting access to it on stream.
For example, only 4% of free stream users said that streaming services made them more likely to purchase a copy of the album on vinyl, a much lower figure than the 19% of paying streamers.
For more info on this controversial subject, check out this featurette from PBS.
