Is Streaming Devaluing Music?

With an endless catalogue of music available to listeners at our fingertips, it is easy to listen to something once and then throw it into the infinite pit of downloaded songs. Is streaming devaluing music?

I remember waking up early on Tuesday mornings when a new album came out from an artist that I really liked. I would set my alarm for two hours before school started, I would skip the gym, and I would head over to Walmart before class to pick up the latest release. I would then pop the CD in, park my car, and listen to the whole thing through with my eyes closed. I remember the day that I went out and got Good Kid Maad City, Nothing Was the Same and even Justin Timberlake‘s second last album. And of course I remember the day that my dad brought me home Ye’s Late Registration; these are experiences that I will never forget. The experience of going to get the music, for me, was just as tied to my reaction of the album as the music itself.

If you haven’t been able to tell my age already, I am definitely not from the record era, but I can imagine that going to pick up the latest vinyls from your favorites was a similar experience. The day that you first listen is memorable, and a new LP can become the soundtrack to your life for however long you relate to the music.

Over the past few years however, (more specifically 2016) there has been a complete shift in the way that we listen to music. With the rise of Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, SoundCloud and other popular streaming services (with many more to come I am sure), the CD is slowly dying. Kanye shared his thoughts about this over Twitter a while back. Now we listen to music directly from our phones. There is no further process necessary. No need to go to the store, or even download it from a third party site (for those albums that you weren’t sure about). If you want to hear the new Young Thug project, it is a click away. I still buy projects on iTunes (or other mediums) if I really respect the artist or enjoy the project, but my days of waking up early and driving to Walmart are over.

Lately I have found that the only albums I listen to are the ones that are on my “recently added” playlist, and this is purely out of convenience sake. The last three things that I have downloaded onto my Apple Music show up on my phone first, so I usually end up clicking play on one of those options. Searching through the vast library of music that is available seems like a daunting task, especially just for a car ride or a work out playlist. The problem is, that with so much new music being released, those three recently added albums or songs switch almost weekly. It feels like aside from the biggest albums of the year from your favorite artists, the streaming world is devaluing music, and even more so, the longevity of that music.

The first week of an album’s release may get streams if the artist has a large fan base, but the next week, something else is available to listen to. When the only effort you have to make is the click of a button, you are not worried about an album being bad because you get to find out for yourself if it was worth a purchase either way within a few minutes and then you can move forward. Even when an album is good or enjoyable, I find it hard to think about going back to it because once the next thing hits, it is no longer on my mind; out of sight out of mind.

There are serious benefits to the way music is being consumed nowadays, and they cannot be ignored. Smaller artists that would not have had their CD’s in the stores anyways, now have a chance to get more people to listen to their albums on a global scale, without major label backing; through SoundCloud and free streaming services. The big artists are not affected much by streaming because as we have seen, The Life of Pablo and Lemonade were still worldwide events. But still, the way that music seems to have lost its value with each new release is hard to ignore.

Maybe I am just being cynical. Maybe things have always been like this, but now the degree of appreciation for music is lessening because of how much music is easily available to us. Either way, I think we should start trying to appreciate each new release for everything that it has to offer before we shove it to the back of our endless catalogue. It is an incredible time to be alive as a music fan, because you can listen to anything that has ever been released without much effort. You can go through discographies, search up similar artists to the ones that you like and browse through already made playlists for you based on your interests. I just think we have been taking all of this for granted lately, myself included. But this is just my opinion. What do you think? Is music being devalued because of streaming services? Has anything changed over the past year? What does the future of music enjoyment look like? Let me know. Enjoy your day

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