Advance Music Streams Prove Digital Music Still Hasn’t Arrived Yet
The ‘advance listen’ stream of a new music album is one of the most backhanded, ruthlessly deceptive, acts of good will currently at play in the music industry.
The advance streaming album is meant as promotion to let people hear the music a week or so before it’s released. But this type of thinking is what’s wrong with digital music. It’s penalizing fans willing pay money in favor of antiquated release date meant to bolster first week numbers.
Even worse, every music site and service tries to play this game and thinks they’re the generous ones bestowing new music first — they’re not.
This isn’t even the type of “windowing” tactics many think the music industry will move towards, because these advance streams usually aren’t available for purchase or pay for with premium subscription.
The way music sales used to work, pre-Napster/Internet freakout, was simpler to understand. A band recorded an album of music, it got a release date well in advance so marketing could let the world know it was coming, and then it went on sale. If the hype caught on, first week sales numbers were good and certain people ooo’d and ahhh’d over the amount of units moved.
How do music releases work today? Very similar except no one buys the music. A band records an album, it gets a release date well in advance so they can let their friends know it’s coming, then several songs get released, the album streams completely ahead of release, and then it finally goes on sale or shows up in Spotify to listen to.
Here’s what’s actually happening with these advance streams (perceptually correct or not).
Fans excited about a new album struggle through a terrible streaming player experience — like sitting at their computer — and don’t have the opportunity to pay money for it. By the time the album is actually able to purchase or stream, those people are most likely on to the next thing.
Only an artist’s most enthusiastic fans are going through this trouble. Everyone else is waiting, or not listening at all. Seriously, have you ever tried to navigate Pandora’s website to find advance streams?
Let me explain this clearly to anyone still not getting it.
Music, just like paintings, or movies, or any other form of art is partially affected by the environment it’s experienced in. Artists—forget first week numbers, they don’t matter—pick a date, and release your music on that date. Whether it’s on streaming services like Rdio, Spotify, or Beats, or as a paid download, or both.
Let people have the opportunity to listen on their phones, on their computers, in their cars, while running, or anywhere else and experience your music in a way that they can connect with.
Bands, you had your chance to decide what music to make and where to make it, so now let the listener choose where and how to listen to it.
