Kill Spotify. Kill Ticketmaster. Kill the majors. KILL THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Why the music industry’s “revolution” is failing the people who make it and why you're to blame

A lot of people are angry, screaming about killing the music industry.

Its understandable. No one’s getting paid!

Unless you’re Ed Sheeran.

The focus is on the usual villains like Spotify, Ticketmaster or the industry itself in the form of the all dominating major labels.

But the truth is, this thing we call the music industry isn’t a single machine. It’s a tangled mess of overlapping systems, legacy deals, tech platforms, monopolies, and power plays.

The industry is dysfunctional on every level, not fit for purpose, the purpose being to encourage, support and protect musical creativity and craftsmanship.

But was it ever..?

An outdated rights system still built for radio and vinyl.

Gatekeepers who shift shape, one day a label exec, the next a playlist curator.

A streaming economy that rewards volume, not quality.

And a workforce, the artists who aren’t unionised, protected, or even seen as workers.

They’re ‘content’

The result? A perfect storm of disrespect, where everyone benefits except the people making the music.

Governed by a handful of people exploiting the dreams of the many.

As Pete Townsend said “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”

Streaming was meant to liberate music. Instead, it’s turned it into a loss leader, something thrown in “for free” with your phone or broadband bill..

And those that do pay?

The price is set, $12 a month for pretty much every song in history, which is far less than the price of a daily bottle of water.

How can you value something when there’s no obvious value transaction?

Meanwhile, Spotify’s founders and execs have cashed out over $1 billion in stock in 2024 alone, while the average UK musician earns £21K a year with nearly half scraping by on £14K or less.

So. If music is more accessible than ever, why is it worth less than ever?

AND WHY ARE YOU LETTING IT HAPPEN??

Music isn’t just listening

We absorb music in two ways, ‘Listening’ and ‘Experience’

Listening comes in two flavours:

• Lean forward: you actively choose your music, streaming a track, dropping a needle on vinyl, playing a CD, etc.

• Lean back: music happens to you, in films, adverts, restaurants, shops, gyms, etc, without you consciously choosing it. You’re a passive listener, yet the music still works its magic (try watching Jurassic Park without its score).

This “lean back” listening is everywhere. It’s emotional wallpaper.

This is part of the problem but I’ll come back to that…

Streaming supercharged both modes. With tools like Shazam, you can hear something in a bar, identify it instantly and share it with friends across the world.

Spotify’s algorithm, for all its faults, is STILL unmatched at surfacing hidden gems.

As someone raised on vinyl, I see streaming as a true revolution in access.

Music needs to travel.

Music has always needed a way to travel to be heard, other wise I’d still be making sad songs in my bedroom.

It’s technology that makes this distribution possible for me and millions of others.

The problem? The music industry rarely owned the distribution tech.

If you don’t own the pipe, you’re at the mercy of whoever does.

From sheet music to vinyl, cassette, CD, and now streaming, it’s the medium, not just the music that built the modern industry. Beethoven’s 5th hasn’t changed in 200 years, but how we hear it has, radically.

That’s why I often say: the music industry is a tech industry.

It’s tech that has created these problems but it’s tech that can solve them.

Let’s look at how.