We can also not deny the impact of the pros and cons of music streaming services on our lives in today’s world.
In a world where technology is ever-evolving, many of us growing up never thought that we would see the end of the CD era. I was born into the audio cassette era.
I will never forget the feeling of getting my favorite artist’s latest album to add to my collection or that nostalgic feeling of rewinding cassettes.
But over time, music has changed, and this change cannot be controlled.
With the rise and dominance of music streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube, music artists are no longer required to release physical albums.
The digitalization of the music industry has changed it inside out.
The older ways are now outdated and taken over by newer trends and opportunities open to the industry daily.
You should also be aware of the pros and cons of music streaming services.
What is Music Streaming?
Music streaming services are popular and indispensable tools for lovers of the great art of music. It allows music lovers to listen to their preferred music and artists.
It gives them access to songs in real-time or live. You can also download songs to add to your archive if you are into that.
These music streaming services have helped many artists have a successful career, but the use case of these music streaming services has risen from just listening and downloading songs to sharing music.
Music streaming services have many pros and cons, but we will highlight a few.
These songs from the streaming services can be played from the streaming website or aired from the streaming services’ mobile apps.
Some of the most common music streaming services are Spotify, Apple Music, Rhapsody, Audiomack, YouTube music, etc.
Pros and Cons of Music Streaming Services
Only some would agree with the benefits of music streaming services in our growing society.
This article will discuss some pros and cons of music streaming services. Join us on this ride;
Pros of Music Streaming Services
1. Unlimited Storage
One of the problems with storing digital music on a computer and an external drive is the risk of losing it all when the music library you have assembled for years becomes corrupted, mismanaged, or deleted.
Music streaming services help users manage their music libraries and also have a feature to regularly create a library backup.
When a music library grows large, it gets hard to manage, and this takes even more internal or external memory on a drive, but with music streaming services, your growing library is stored in the cloud.
And though you might build an extensive collection of music tied to your account, the entire music catalog is stored and only accessible to you as a subscriber.
2. Access
With music streaming services, your music is accessible anywhere and everywhere as long as you can access a Wi-Fi mobile internet network. It is easy to set up on almost any device.
3. Portability
As I said earlier, there was a time when you had to collect cassettes, CDs, and records of your favorite artists.
Those took up a lot of space, as you needed help carrying them all simultaneously. Then came the revolution of mp3, which you could take anywhere at any time.
This comes with its limits. You will need enough space on your smart device to carry all your favorite songs, but eventually, you will run out of space.
But with streaming services, you don’t need to download anything if you choose not to.
You can stream the music you want online with no hassle. There is no chance you will run out of space.
4. Music Has Become Easier To Make
With the evolution of technology, making music has now become easy. We see new trendy music and hits reaching people’s bedrooms worldwide each waking day.
Creativity has a way of reaching the world; even tech-savvy people can now make music.
The situation around music has never been like this; new talents are being discovered on social media like Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook now and then.
It is also easier for a new artist to explore cutting-edge music creation. Anyone can sell or upload music on streaming services to generate revenue.
Now that you know the pros of music streaming services, let’s move on to the cons.
Cons of Music Streaming Services
1. Ownership of the Music
Formerly, you could own the music you got on your CDs and records because you bought them, but now, you do not claim ownership of the music you stream online just for the subscription.
2. Various Advertisements
You can only avoid advertisements while listening to music-on-music streaming apps if you have a paid subscription.
In other words, advertisements are now a critical factor in music streaming services, and the only way you can get rid of these advertisements is to pay for a subscription.
Some music streaming services allow you to pay for extra features to listen to premium content on their platform. However, this can sometimes spoil the music-listening experience.
3. Artists Don’t Get Paid Enough
Next on our list of pros and cons of music streaming services. In the good old days, music artists were used to getting paid for their record launches, but everything has changed.
Artists earn very little money when a new record is launched on a music streaming service platform.
The situation of artists has become complicated if you compare the old days to recent times. Becoming famous is easier than getting money from your music.
4. Artists Release More Tracks In an Album Than Before
Unlike when artists released a few tracks on their albums and held on to some of their hits for another album release, music streaming services have allowed artists to release more tracks than in the old days.
This increases the chances of autoplay as curated by the algorithm.
Conclusion
Whether we like it or not, technology will always continue to evolve.
Since time immemorial, we have come across many mediums of music consumption, ranging from vinyl, cassette tapes, CDs, MP3s, and now streaming services; we can never guess what technology has in store for us in the future.
We can also not deny the impact of the pros and cons of music streaming services on our lives in today’s world.
The one thing that is certain about the music industry is that it is powerful enough to move mountains.
In the meantime, let us continue to support, listen, vibe, and stream good music.
