Music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify are often looked down upon, and for many good reasons. Common complaints are poor pay for artists, corporate promotion/influence, sponsored recommendations, and algorithms that benefit certain songs are artists disproportionately. But while I share some of these feelings, the benefits which caused them to get so popular still outweigh the criticisms for me. Without music streaming, I would never have discovered fantastic active artists like Ken Pomeroy, Joyce Manor, The Dip, or Vulfmon, and I never would have been able to delve into the depths of Eddy Arnold’s Cattle Call or Ella and Louis.

I think it’s important as consumers to promote smaller artist by going to local shows and listening to their music, buying merch, and sharing with friends. But economically, music streaming makes sense. It would be best if the consumers could pressure the corporations to avoid consolidation/monopolies, which lead to extracting the greatest amount of profit for the minimum viable product. The degradation of the music services hath begun. I’m open to ideas on how to fix it. Until then, I may need to start looking at Bandcamp again…