A lot has been written about Spotify and its perceived shortcomings; I will not repeat that. I am not an expert on streaming services, so I am offering my honest assessment of the situation. I have been releasing music as a label on Bandcamp under the names Z Tapes and Start-track.com since 2013, so I have been in the music world for some time. Additionally, this blog was primarily based on Bandcamp discoveries for a long time, so I admit I might be biased; however, it is essential to address this issue.
I am not affiliated with Bandcamp or streaming services, so my opinion will be shared from the perspective of a label (not an artist), as an ultimate music fan. That being said, let me get to the point. I will often use the term ‘Spotify’ in this text, but I also refer to other streaming services by that term. I see Spotify as the most significant problem and the streaming service we should all ditch.
I was slow to adapt to Spotify and other streaming services. Even as a blog, we started with Spotify playlists at a late stage, when the Golden Age of third-party playlists (not generated by Spotify) had already passed. I cannot say that I have been a heavy user, but it never felt right. Somehow, I felt like I was cheating when listening to music on Spotify.
I continued to buy music on Bandcamp even though most of it was already accessible to me through my Spotify subscription. I was already skeptical about streaming and did not want to support a way of listening that seemed unsupportive of artists or labels.
For the majority of time, my go-to way to listen to music was either listening to physical music, whether cassettes or vinyl records, or listening to music on Bandcamp or the Bandcamp app. I have a vast collection of releases there (over 1400), so I always have music to choose from. I never felt the need to go to Spotify at all. This may not be the case for a standard music fan, but I hope the things I write here resonate with you.
I despise the streaming model in general, so I am biased, but we should be. The model was never intended to support indie music. It was to make access to all music available for a minimal fee. That would never aim to help small artists, as there will always be fewer people listening to them than to major artists. The music industry has always been perceived as rigged, but streaming has exacerbated the issue. I will not discuss the moral issues surrounding streaming, which have been addressed multiple times.
I want to discuss why the model is flawed and the associated problems. The solution is Bandcamp, which is not ideal either, but Mirlo, Ampwall, and Subvert are other options for the future. Therefore, my proposed alternative is more general, but Bandcamp is currently the most user-friendly option.
Streaming listens are similar to radio listens. Most listeners are unaware of who they’re listening to and feel little attachment to the music. It has minimal effect unless you hear the same song so many times that you start to remember it. It feels very impersonal to me as a music fan, and it is just in our background while working, for example. Playlists are the ultimate manifestation of this experience. After a few minutes, you end up listening to something you will not remember. There is a book called “Mood Machine” by Liz Pelly, which I have not yet read, but I plan to read and review it.
Additionally, I will not touch the ownership of Bandcamp, which is not ideal either, but I am confident that it is still better than Spotify. The proof is in how much Bandcamp continues to do for providing an excellent tool for indie musicians. There have been many positives that I can still see continuing; however, if you would like to opt for something that offers even better ownership, we have some options available. New projects, such as Mirlo, Ampwall, and Subvert, aim to create an alternative to Bandcamp built on better principles. Therefore, there will soon be an alternative that will be a better choice than streaming or even Bandcamp.
Why I recommend ditching Spotify for Bandcamp is not the ownership, but the model, which is much fairer to artists. Bandcamp has created a remarkable ability to support your favorite artists directly. They are taking a cut, which is always a matter of debate. Additionally, the payment processor also takes a cut. However, they are switching from PayPal to Stripe, so it should be even better in the future. PayPal is another corporation that no one should voluntarily support. However, this is not a point I intended to make, as this topic could be the subject of a separate article.
My point is different. A Spotify subscription does not benefit indie music or the artists you listen to on Spotify. The reason is simple.
Let’s look at what we pay for Spotify, which is 11 EUR. In the current model, the payment per stream is usually attributed at 0,003 cents in the best scenario. Some streaming platforms are better, but let’s work with what we have. Imagine using that 11 EUR each month to fully support musicians. To make 11 EUR for artists, it would need to be at least 3,666 streams, which, if we turned them into minutes, would be 109,980 minutes of listening. I used 3-minute songs as the average song length. The listening time is 183.3 hours, which is more than three full days. Or if you divide it by 31 days, it is almost 6 hours of listening each day for the whole month.
That is absurd. No one is doing this every single day throughout the month. This would require a dedicated fan who listens specifically to a set of artists they want to support and is committed to doing so daily. It. It is almost impossible to expect fans to do this hard work to distribute the money they paid to the artists they want to support. This system is rigged from the start.
Let’s compare what we could do for 11 EUR on Bandcamp. We could buy, for example, 11 albums for 1 EUR. Support 11 artists. Or just one I like for 11 EUR. The artist or label would get 77-83% of that (10-15% for Bandcamp, 7-8% for PayPal). For our 1 EUR spent, they would receive at least 0.75 cents, equivalent to at least 250 streams. We would need to listen to a 10-song album at least 25 times to earn the same amount as the artist on Spotify. The numbers are insane. No one should have to do such hard math to calculate how to utilize the money paid to Spotify. The direct support on Bandcamp or any other similar platform is the primary way to support musicians. No streaming. That system is rigged.
You can do more good in a shorter time when using Bandcamp, and you will not support an unhealthy system for artists or anyone involved in it. It is not simpler or easier; it will require extra work, but it will be worth every penny. The money you save on Spotify can be used to do actual good more quickly and directly. That will show how much you care about indie music. There is no rocket science behind it, just simple math.
I will not delve into how much time artists need to invest in promoting their Spotify presence to earn a few cents. No talking about how much algorithms are screwing up our listening habits and killing the joy of music discovery. About how much more money is distributed to big companies that already have a lot of money. Or how the CEO of Spotify is like a sinister villain from a Disney movie. About how Spotify is not helping small musicians. How playlists that are not generated by Spotify are no longer being promoted.
Everything related to streaming is deteriorating rapidly. I doubt it was even good at any point in its history. And there is more, much, much more.
You do not want to be part of that system, you do not want to change your listening habits because of it, and you do not want to overlook all the problems this creates. We should all consider ditching Spotify and, as an alternative, start buying music directly from Bandcamp. I have been doing it for 14 years already. It may be your first year, but it is never too late to cancel your Spotify account and open a Bandcamp fan account. I can guarantee you that you will not regret it.
Perhaps you’ve finished this piece and thought to yourself, “Yes, I know all of this.” Consider leaving Spotify and switching to Bandcamp instead. Perhaps you’ve heard this for the first time, and then, yes, it was meant for you as well. You may be hearing about Bandcamp for the first time, and yes, this was for you. Or you are already doing this; in that case, I admire you.
Anyway, my message is to ditch Spotify and buy music on Bandcamp.
A disclaimer: We still have a Spotify subscription for one simple reason. The small indie musicians still want to submit music to our playlists, but we will have to make a tough decision to ditch it. We are already taking small steps to do it in the future, but for us, it will take some time. If you can cancel your Spotify subscription sooner, please do it now.
Any questions or comments? Please reply here.
Written by Filip Zemcik
An analog photo taken by Filip at Total Bummer Festival 2013 in Florida. Band Sales.