WEBVTT - TechStuff Tidbits: A Brief History of Streaming Music

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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<v Speaker 1>Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and

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<v Speaker 1>how the tech are you. It's time for a text

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<v Speaker 1>of Tidbits, and today I wanted to do a Tidbits

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<v Speaker 1>episode about music streaming. Now, first off, music streaming is

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<v Speaker 1>a huge topic. I could, I could, and I likely

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<v Speaker 1>will do at least one full episode devoted to it,

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<v Speaker 1>but I thought it would do kind of a very

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<v Speaker 1>high level discussion of music streaming and its history. Now, this,

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<v Speaker 1>by the way, was prompted by the recent news that

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<v Speaker 1>fans of certain artists on the death Row music label

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<v Speaker 1>discovered that some of their favorite albums and songs seemed

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<v Speaker 1>to be disappearing from popular music streaming services like Spotify.

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<v Speaker 1>And this coincides with Snoop Dogg's announcement that he wants

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<v Speaker 1>to turn death Row Records into the first major music

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<v Speaker 1>label in the metaverse and is turning it into an

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<v Speaker 1>n f T based music label. What all that means

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<v Speaker 1>is a matter for another episode, but let's talk about

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<v Speaker 1>what streaming is first. Essentially, it's all about accessing media

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<v Speaker 1>in real time. And you know, we could pick some

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<v Speaker 1>knits here about that definition and the use of the

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<v Speaker 1>phrase real time, but it gets across my meaning. So

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<v Speaker 1>rather than say downloading a song to a device so

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<v Speaker 1>that you can listen to it whenever you like, you

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<v Speaker 1>use some sort of service. It might be an app,

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<v Speaker 1>it might be built into a browser based service, and

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<v Speaker 1>you use that to listen to music streaming from a

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<v Speaker 1>web server somewhere out there to your local device. It's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of like radio, but it's typically on demand and

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<v Speaker 1>without using traditional over the air broadcast signals. Now, there

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<v Speaker 1>are a lot of different places where we could start

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<v Speaker 1>the history of this. For example, way back in which

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<v Speaker 1>is when a lot of the population still didn't really

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<v Speaker 1>understand what the heck the Internet was. I mean, the

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<v Speaker 1>the World Wide Web was brand new. Well back then

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<v Speaker 1>you had the Internet Underground Music Archive or i u

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<v Speaker 1>m A. Some students at the University of California, Santa

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<v Speaker 1>Cruz launched this organization to create essentially a database where

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<v Speaker 1>independent artists could upload their music and get that music

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<v Speaker 1>out to fans who otherwise might never discover those artists.

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<v Speaker 1>So this was one of those very early demonstrations of

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<v Speaker 1>how the Internet can democratize content distribution and by pass

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<v Speaker 1>the traditional model which has massive media accompany's gate keeping

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<v Speaker 1>the whole thing. I I acknowledge that as the employee

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<v Speaker 1>of a massive media company, I I recognized the irony here.

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<v Speaker 1>But yeah, like you know that it's hard to get

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<v Speaker 1>discovered if you're a musician, particularly if you're independent. Um

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<v Speaker 1>it's one thing just to get discovered enough for a

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<v Speaker 1>record label to be interested in you, but it's very

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<v Speaker 1>hard to get your music out there. And a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of independent artists didn't want to go the route of

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<v Speaker 1>seeking out a record label or putting themselves out there

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<v Speaker 1>again and again in the hopes that at one of

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<v Speaker 1>their shows someone from some record label happens to be

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<v Speaker 1>there and they get whisked off and discovered, because that

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<v Speaker 1>happens to such a tiny fraction of all the musicians

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<v Speaker 1>out there. The Internet suddenly gave the potential for an

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<v Speaker 1>artist to reach an audience without having to go through

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<v Speaker 1>that other pathway. They wouldn't have to hope that some

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<v Speaker 1>rep was in the audience and that that rep thought

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<v Speaker 1>that the show was good. I mean, maybe it would

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<v Speaker 1>be a bad show that night, and that could totally

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<v Speaker 1>scuttle your dreams. The Internet represented a different way. That's

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<v Speaker 1>what these students were trying to do. They were trying

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<v Speaker 1>to create this opportunity for independent musicians. And I actually

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<v Speaker 1>find the whole thing particularly impressive because this was way

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<v Speaker 1>before the MP three format had really taken off. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>it was in development around that time, but it had

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<v Speaker 1>not become the sort of default audio file format for

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<v Speaker 1>Internet transfers. So we're talking about some files that were

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<v Speaker 1>in other formats like wave files or ai f F files.

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<v Speaker 1>Those can be huge, Like those are really big files,

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<v Speaker 1>typically at least much larger than say MP three files.

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<v Speaker 1>So you also have to remember this was back in

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<v Speaker 1>the day when folks were using dial up internet. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>it was very slow or very narrow bandwidth if you prefer. So. Again,

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<v Speaker 1>this was not streaming. This was all about downloading files. However,

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<v Speaker 1>it was a stepping stone toward the environment we find

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<v Speaker 1>ourselves in today. Another big stepping stone was the development

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<v Speaker 1>of Napster. In fact, a later service with the name

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<v Speaker 1>of Napster would be associated with a streaming music service,

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<v Speaker 1>but the original incarnation of Napster, which debuted in was

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<v Speaker 1>that of a peer to peer file sharing network with

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<v Speaker 1>a focus on sharing music files, not exclusively, but primarily.

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<v Speaker 1>Now by this time, the MP three format was pretty

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<v Speaker 1>firmly established, which was great because it allowed users to

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<v Speaker 1>compress audio files down to a fraction of their raw size.

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<v Speaker 1>That made it much easier to transfer those files over networks.

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<v Speaker 1>Plus they didn't take up as much space when you

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<v Speaker 1>were storing them on like a hard drive. Of course,

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<v Speaker 1>it would also potentially affect the sound quality depending upon

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<v Speaker 1>the encoding settings you were using when you were encoding

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<v Speaker 1>into MP three. If you were being particularly aggressive, then

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<v Speaker 1>the sound file you got would sound pretty crappy. So anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>that's something I've covered in other episodes, so we'll dwell

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<v Speaker 1>on it here. So peer to peer systems are not

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<v Speaker 1>inherently wrong or illegal, but it was impossible to deny

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<v Speaker 1>the fact that the majority of the file transfer traffic

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<v Speaker 1>across Napster was with copyrighted music files. Folks might use

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<v Speaker 1>a computer to rip music files directly from a CD,

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<v Speaker 1>so they might go to their CD collection, put the

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<v Speaker 1>CDs into their optical drive on their computer, rip the

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<v Speaker 1>music files off, and then convert them to MP three,

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<v Speaker 1>store them on their computer, then move those music files

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<v Speaker 1>into a Napster full or and make it available share

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<v Speaker 1>able so that others on the Napster peer to peer

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<v Speaker 1>network can download them simultaneously. Those users might be seeking

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<v Speaker 1>out other music that's available on the Napster platform, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>albums that they don't actually own. So Napster became a

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<v Speaker 1>haven of music trading and theft. In some cases, folks

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<v Speaker 1>were using it to find songs that you just couldn't

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<v Speaker 1>easily find in other places, like bootleg albums or live

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<v Speaker 1>recordings that were never you know, officially pressed, that kind

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<v Speaker 1>of stuff. But a lot of people did it too,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, get hold of songs or albums or an

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<v Speaker 1>entire library without having to pay for it. And this

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<v Speaker 1>happened to coincide with a dip in music sales, and

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<v Speaker 1>that sent the recording industry in general into a frothy rage.

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<v Speaker 1>Soon Napster was the target of multiple lawsuits, some of

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<v Speaker 1>which alleged that the platform had caused massive revenue losses. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>I would say that is an argument that's really impossible

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<v Speaker 1>to support in any quantifiable way. Uh. I mean, it

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<v Speaker 1>does make common sense that folks getting free access to

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<v Speaker 1>music would hurt music sales like that seems to follow,

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<v Speaker 1>but I argue it's impossible to actually put a number

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<v Speaker 1>on that you can't definitively say because of this, we

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<v Speaker 1>missed out on X million dollars of revenue, because you

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<v Speaker 1>have no way of knowing how many of those people

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<v Speaker 1>who stole music would have actually bought an album or

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<v Speaker 1>single in the first place. I mean, they might have

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<v Speaker 1>just gone without. However, this was plenty enough for the

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<v Speaker 1>music industry to go nuclear, not just Napster, but other

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<v Speaker 1>services that offered similar features as Napster, stuff like Kazan

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<v Speaker 1>and lime Wire, and also folks who had been identified

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<v Speaker 1>as using those services like Sweet Little Grandmas and stuff. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>the music industry started filing these massive lawsuits, like seeking

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<v Speaker 1>hundreds of thousands of dollars and damages against like people

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<v Speaker 1>that were very easy to sympathize with. So the music

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<v Speaker 1>industry did not win over many fans during this era

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<v Speaker 1>where it was just going into berserker rage mode and

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<v Speaker 1>it was really really ugly stuff. Now, Napster itself, at

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<v Speaker 1>least in its original form, shut down by two thousand one,

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<v Speaker 1>So the brightest stars burned out the fastest. I guess anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>Napster is going to come back into this a little bit.

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<v Speaker 1>So in the early two thousand's we saw the first

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<v Speaker 1>emergence of legitimate digital music stores. Uh these were mostly

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<v Speaker 1>operated by the individual music labels, which was kind of

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<v Speaker 1>a hassle, like you had to you know, hunt around

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<v Speaker 1>to find digital downloads. Labels were more interested in still

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<v Speaker 1>selling physical copies of media, so primarily c d s

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<v Speaker 1>like the cassette days were gone. Vinyl was pretty much extinct,

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<v Speaker 1>like it was very rare for people to produce music

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<v Speaker 1>on vinyl during this era. That has changed, like we've

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<v Speaker 1>seen vinyl make a comeback over recent years, but in

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<v Speaker 1>this early two thousands era, it was pretty much CDs

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<v Speaker 1>that were the focus, and it would take a couple

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<v Speaker 1>more years before we got the iTunes music store that

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<v Speaker 1>didn't launch until two thousand three. We had iTunes earlier,

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<v Speaker 1>but the original version of iTunes wasn't a store. It

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<v Speaker 1>was a way for you to be able to rip

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<v Speaker 1>music from c ds and then transfer music to an iPod.

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<v Speaker 1>So it wasn't a way to buy music. It was

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<v Speaker 1>a way to get music from one medium onto another.

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<v Speaker 1>Um And honestly, the the digital stores and the rise

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<v Speaker 1>of iTunes music in particular was really a response to

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<v Speaker 1>the problems that the industry had seen with services like Napster.

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<v Speaker 1>It was saying, you know, part of the reason why

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<v Speaker 1>this happened is because we don't have a legal, legitimate

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<v Speaker 1>way for people to get hold of digital music. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>initially those stores didn't offer any streaming capabilities either. Customers

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<v Speaker 1>would go to the stores, they would purchase specific songs

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<v Speaker 1>or albums, then they would download those files to their

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<v Speaker 1>computer and later other devices. But in the early days

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<v Speaker 1>it was pretty much computers, and then you would use

0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.360
<v Speaker 1>an actual physical cable to connect an MP three player

0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.480
<v Speaker 1>like an iPod to your computer, So you have a

0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:27.680
<v Speaker 1>physical cable that would go between them and you would

0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.760
<v Speaker 1>transfer music over that way, which sounds like I'm talking

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<v Speaker 1>about the Stone Age these days. All Right, we've got

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<v Speaker 1>more to say, but before we get to that, let's

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<v Speaker 1>take a quick break. Okay, let's get back into it. So,

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<v Speaker 1>as digital music stores were taking shape, you had a

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<v Speaker 1>few different groups working on pieces of tech that collectively

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<v Speaker 1>would allow for music streaming and uh more advanced features.

0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:03.400
<v Speaker 1>One group created a dreaming Audio technology. Essentially, they created

0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.240
<v Speaker 1>the protocols that would allow to stream music from one

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<v Speaker 1>source out to you know, clients as in computers or

0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:17.360
<v Speaker 1>other devices. They incorporated this technology into a music service

0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:22.439
<v Speaker 1>called tune to. That's t o tune to dot com,

0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:27.080
<v Speaker 1>which was an online radio service. Meanwhile, they were also

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<v Speaker 1>working on kind of an internal project that would allow

0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:34.439
<v Speaker 1>for on demand streaming audio with a concept they called Aladdin.

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<v Speaker 1>This would be more like a jukebox where you have

0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:42.960
<v Speaker 1>a library of music on a digital service somewhere that

0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.559
<v Speaker 1>you could access street and stream it directly. Instead of

0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.800
<v Speaker 1>like listening to a radio station, you're listening to a

0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.240
<v Speaker 1>playlist of of music that you've curated. Now, in two

0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.680
<v Speaker 1>thousand one, a company called Listen dot Com purchased tune

0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:00.480
<v Speaker 1>to dot com, and Listen dot Com meanwhile also happened

0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:04.359
<v Speaker 1>to own an online music directory that was fairly large,

0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:06.800
<v Speaker 1>didn't have the major labels attached to it, but a

0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:12.040
<v Speaker 1>couple of independent labels and such. So, pairing that Aladdin

0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:16.680
<v Speaker 1>concept with the large music database, Listen dot Com created

0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:20.280
<v Speaker 1>a new service that they called Rhapsody, and this would

0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.760
<v Speaker 1>be the first streaming music service and it launched very

0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.359
<v Speaker 1>late in two thousand one. So to listen to Rhapsody,

0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.760
<v Speaker 1>customers would have to fork over a monthly subscription fee,

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<v Speaker 1>and over the following year, Rhapsody would build out their

0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:38.600
<v Speaker 1>library further by making deals with major music labels. Now

0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.880
<v Speaker 1>the company Real Networks would then go on to acquire

0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.880
<v Speaker 1>Listen dot Com. This stuff happens a lot in tech,

0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.679
<v Speaker 1>by the way, particularly during the early two thousand's, You

0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.560
<v Speaker 1>could go with the phantom menace approach of saying there's

0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:57.280
<v Speaker 1>always a bigger fish. Now. Rhapsody was acquired by Real

0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.160
<v Speaker 1>Networks right around the time that the iTunes music store

0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.800
<v Speaker 1>officially launched, and just to bring Napster back into this

0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.960
<v Speaker 1>much later, in two thousand sixteen, Rhapsody, which at that

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<v Speaker 1>point was an independent company no longer was owned by

0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:16.320
<v Speaker 1>Real Networks, would rebrand itself as Napster. There was no

0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:21.720
<v Speaker 1>real connection to the peer to peer network from one,

0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:24.320
<v Speaker 1>but it did use the same name because the name

0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.240
<v Speaker 1>had a lot of brand recognition power to it even

0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.400
<v Speaker 1>a decade later, so actually a decade and a half later,

0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.280
<v Speaker 1>so we could say that streaming really got started in

0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.400
<v Speaker 1>late two thousand one early two thousand two. Also in

0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.840
<v Speaker 1>two thousand two, last Fm would introduce a feature that

0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.160
<v Speaker 1>would become important for later streaming services like Pandora, and

0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.280
<v Speaker 1>that feature would a would track user activity, so what

0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.760
<v Speaker 1>songs are the users gravitating towards, like what what kind

0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:00.960
<v Speaker 1>of stuff are you listening to? And then this feature

0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.600
<v Speaker 1>would then use that information to make recommendations of other

0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.920
<v Speaker 1>music that that listener might not be aware of but

0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:12.800
<v Speaker 1>could potentially really like based upon their musical tendencies. Now,

0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.760
<v Speaker 1>Pandora would take that concept and push it much harder,

0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.000
<v Speaker 1>growing out of something that was called the Music Genome Project.

0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.520
<v Speaker 1>And you probably heard me talk about metadata in the past.

0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:27.880
<v Speaker 1>Metadata is information about information, and it's typically used so

0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:33.480
<v Speaker 1>that machine systems can sort information more efficiently. For example,

0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.040
<v Speaker 1>for every episode of tech Stuff, I create metadata, and

0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.000
<v Speaker 1>that includes stuff like a brief description of the episode

0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.600
<v Speaker 1>as well as a list of keywords that relate to

0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.960
<v Speaker 1>the subject matter. And metadata helps computers contextualized content in

0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.960
<v Speaker 1>some way. So if you go searching in the text

0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.320
<v Speaker 1>of archives for something specific, as long as I did

0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:59.200
<v Speaker 1>my job correctly, the appropriate uh query results will pop up.

0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.680
<v Speaker 1>So with songs, the Music Genome Project would break down

0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.920
<v Speaker 1>a lot of the basic components of music in order

0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.160
<v Speaker 1>to quote unquote understand what that music was made up of.

0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.280
<v Speaker 1>And it was actual human beings that were doing this work.

0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.960
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't like artificial intelligence listening to music. It was

0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.840
<v Speaker 1>real people, and so they would listen to music and

0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.200
<v Speaker 1>they would start tagging songs. So you might tag a

0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:27.080
<v Speaker 1>song with tags like female vocalist or up tempo beat

0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.560
<v Speaker 1>or long guitar solo or whatever, and you might use

0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.680
<v Speaker 1>as many tags as you can possibly think of that

0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.680
<v Speaker 1>helps describe the music. The Pandora service would later use

0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.840
<v Speaker 1>this to create dynamic playlists of music for listeners based

0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.520
<v Speaker 1>on a seed song or artist. So you would go

0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.440
<v Speaker 1>to Pandora, you would put in something to start off

0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.720
<v Speaker 1>your station. You might use a specific song, or you

0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.360
<v Speaker 1>might use a specific artist or musical group, and the

0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.200
<v Speaker 1>Music Genome Project says, Okay, what are some of the

0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:05.199
<v Speaker 1>characteristics of that song or that particular artist that you

0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:09.400
<v Speaker 1>know they typically use, and what similar artists and songs

0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.000
<v Speaker 1>can I draw from to create a playlist that fits

0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.560
<v Speaker 1>that same sort of model. It was and is pretty

0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:21.280
<v Speaker 1>darn cool anyway. These features and similar ones designed to

0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.960
<v Speaker 1>do pretty much the same thing, created the backbone for

0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.360
<v Speaker 1>many streaming services. Of course, not all streaming services are

0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:32.240
<v Speaker 1>dynamic playlists. Some follow more of a broadcast model. For example,

0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.840
<v Speaker 1>I listened to the I Heart Radio broadway station a lot.

0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:36.960
<v Speaker 1>I know I worked for I Heart Radio, but I

0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.840
<v Speaker 1>also legitimately listened to that station, And that one is

0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.680
<v Speaker 1>more like a streaming radio station, right, Like they have

0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.520
<v Speaker 1>curated that on the back end. It's not dynamic, it's

0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.000
<v Speaker 1>not switching things up just for me. But if I

0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.320
<v Speaker 1>listen to something like my Pandora musical stationed and I'm

0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.640
<v Speaker 1>hearing music that is at least in part curated based

0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.880
<v Speaker 1>upon whatever I used to seed that station. Of course,

0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.320
<v Speaker 1>the tech side of streaming is just one tiny part

0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.639
<v Speaker 1>of this. There's also the business side that gets way

0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.600
<v Speaker 1>more complicated. Like, as complex as the tech is, it

0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.320
<v Speaker 1>doesn't even scratch the surface of the finance side. Generally speaking,

0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.800
<v Speaker 1>there are a few different ways that artists make money

0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:21.120
<v Speaker 1>through their music. UM. But let's think about artists getting

0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:27.720
<v Speaker 1>paid through streaming media. Well, that's usually handled through royalties. UM.

0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.439
<v Speaker 1>Royalties are essentially a payment made to the rights owner

0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.119
<v Speaker 1>of a particular work for the licensed use of that work.

0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:37.879
<v Speaker 1>So you can get royalties from all sorts of stuff

0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:43.320
<v Speaker 1>like albums. Sales can be lumped in with royalties. Radio airplay,

0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.920
<v Speaker 1>the use of a song in television or movies or

0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:51.760
<v Speaker 1>professional wrestler entrances, um, and you get paid based on

0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.840
<v Speaker 1>that a certain amount. Honestly, the way it really works

0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.800
<v Speaker 1>is that the record label gets paid and then you

0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.040
<v Speaker 1>get a percentage as an artist based upon your contract

0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.800
<v Speaker 1>with that record label, and so it's just a fraction

0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.560
<v Speaker 1>of the amount that's paid to the label itself. Let's

0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.960
<v Speaker 1>say you get yourself an album. That album is available

0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:15.160
<v Speaker 1>on Spotify. Well, first, Spotify generates revenue through subscriptions and such,

0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.440
<v Speaker 1>and it takes a significant chunk out of that incoming

0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:22.680
<v Speaker 1>revenue around thirty So the sev's left over, it goes

0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.760
<v Speaker 1>into a pool that then gets divided up into all

0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.320
<v Speaker 1>the other parties that are involved in getting your music

0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.399
<v Speaker 1>out into the world, and that includes record labels and

0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.000
<v Speaker 1>music publishers and ultimately you. And what this means is

0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:36.920
<v Speaker 1>that by the time everyone else has taken their cut,

0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.879
<v Speaker 1>there's very little left that's actually going to the artist.

0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.520
<v Speaker 1>There are a lot of artists out there, you know,

0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.119
<v Speaker 1>if they're not in the top top top tier, like

0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:49.840
<v Speaker 1>if they're not mega superstars like Beyonce, they're getting paid

0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:54.639
<v Speaker 1>pennies for their music being played. Um, you know, and

0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.320
<v Speaker 1>you could argue, well, they're getting a lot of recognition,

0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.399
<v Speaker 1>but recognition don't pay the rent. And then a world

0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:04.520
<v Speaker 1>where live performance is still pretty rare because of the pandemic,

0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.880
<v Speaker 1>and you know places are just now starting to change that,

0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.440
<v Speaker 1>it's really tough for the vast majority of musical artists

0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.640
<v Speaker 1>out there. Um So streaming is one of those things

0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.520
<v Speaker 1>that's potentially very good for the customer in the short term,

0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.480
<v Speaker 1>possibly bad for the long term, just because the effect

0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.800
<v Speaker 1>it actually has on artists, right Like, if it gets

0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.720
<v Speaker 1>to a point where artists have no financial interest in

0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.320
<v Speaker 1>pursuing a career in music, you don't get art because

0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:38.280
<v Speaker 1>people gotta eat. So there's there's good and bad to streaming.

0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.719
<v Speaker 1>There's been a lot of calls for streaming to change

0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:45.000
<v Speaker 1>dramatically in an effort to be more sustainable on the

0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:49.199
<v Speaker 1>artist side, and we're also seeing slow upticks in the

0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.040
<v Speaker 1>adoption of physical media. Vinyl has made a pretty big comeback,

0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:55.720
<v Speaker 1>and again I think that's partly to create a connection

0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.080
<v Speaker 1>between the listener and the artist, but we're also seeing

0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.320
<v Speaker 1>that with c ds these days. Whether or not that

0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.080
<v Speaker 1>becomes a trend remains to be seen. I'm a little

0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:09.080
<v Speaker 1>skeptical of that. But yeah, that's that's kind of the quick,

0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.400
<v Speaker 1>dirty version of what streaming is all about. Like I said,

0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.080
<v Speaker 1>I'll have to do a full episode dedicated to the

0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.040
<v Speaker 1>topic in the future, probably probably a couple like one

0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.200
<v Speaker 1>maybe really focusing on the tech and one may be

0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.600
<v Speaker 1>really focusing on the business side and its implications and

0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:30.679
<v Speaker 1>how that's shaping the way we consume media and music.

0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.480
<v Speaker 1>But I wanted to get that kind of out there

0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.359
<v Speaker 1>simply because the snoop Dog story really got me thinking

0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:39.800
<v Speaker 1>about it. Um and I haven't even touched on stuff

0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.040
<v Speaker 1>like the web three point oh metaverse or inn f

0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.120
<v Speaker 1>t side of the music industry, which is also something

0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.320
<v Speaker 1>I'll have to cover in a future episode. If you

0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:50.000
<v Speaker 1>have suggestions for topics I should tackle in either a

0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.400
<v Speaker 1>tidbits episode or a full episode anything like that. Any

0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.360
<v Speaker 1>suggestions for people I should have on the show, anything

0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:58.760
<v Speaker 1>along those lines, let me know. The best way to

0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.000
<v Speaker 1>let me know is over on Twitter. The handle for

0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:04.200
<v Speaker 1>the show is tech Stuff hs W and I'll talk

0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:12.480
<v Speaker 1>to you again really soon. Yeah. Text Stuff is an

0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.200
<v Speaker 1>I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,

0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.679
<v Speaker 1>visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:21.320
<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows,