Spotify has 640 million monthly users. Apple Music has 93 million. SoundCloud has 140 million. Those are big numbers. Kendrick Lamar’s newest album “GNX” has over 1 billion streams on Spotify, yet it sold only 32,000 units / physical copies. Why is that?
As the days go by, physical media gets less and less relevant and convenient, making fans of it like me worried about it one day fully fading out. Why buy a CD or a vinyl if you can just stream the songs on your phone? It takes up less time, less space, and overall, just seems like a waste of time to many. Now they are typically seen as a collector’s item. Something you get after already listening to the album and like it. Pricing can also be a factor; if there isn’t high demand, then less copies are made, which could mark up prices in order for there to not be a net loss. However, it isn’t just music.
A successful movie typically releases a Blue-Ray / physical copy after a theatrical release; however, now more often than not, movies are put on streaming services not even a month later, like “Dogman” that released January 31 and went on streaming February 18, just 19 days after. These same conditions apply to many forms of media today, but I see it most prevalent in music.
In a poll of 103 BHS students, 79 said yes to owning some form of physical media, but of that 79, 66 still prefer to use a streaming service.
So what can we do? It’s not like streaming would go away, and people will regardless still find a way to consume the media. Well, making sure to support the media you are interested in when it releases, and voicing opinions is a start!
