Music has always been popular among people. As generations passed, music distribution and accessibility changed. In a pre-internet and digital era, music was distributed through vinyl, cassettes and CDs, and people often listened on the radio or at live concerts.
With the internet taking over daily life, finding new music through Spotify, Apple Music and other digital platforms became easier. While this digital era of music discovery brought many benefits to new musicians, it also brought challenges.
Colette Curry, senior music and mathematics double major, explained the benefits and challenges that streaming services brought to beginner musicians.
“Streaming music has benefitted musicians by providing easy platforms to post their music on. This, paired with its accessibility to the listener, allows an artist’s music to be discovered and heard over a wide spread,” Curry said. “However, it seems that with streaming has come a decrease in popularity of live music, which in some ways can lessen opportunities for jazz or orchestral musicians, where their art form is not as easily translated to streaming.”
Social media has also become a tool that can make music go viral, boosting a musician’s career. But as social media brings new artists into the spotlight, it also sets a creative pattern of what people like or feel they should listen to.
Andres Guerrero, junior studio production major, shared the patterns that the digital era set within the music industry.
“Right now, it’s mainly short music. If you open up Instagram or TikTok, all the songs fit in a 30-second reel, and by that, it becomes like a massive hit just because someone saw a video with that song,” Guerrero said. “So, if the song becomes trendy, then everyone will go to a platform and listen to the full music… I think the pattern would be that if the song becomes trendy or has a different beat or something people would dance to and make a video, then it becomes famous. Unfortunately, that is not the case for classical music, but if it is a pop song, the chance of becoming popular is higher.”
However, social media and streaming services follow algorithmic personalization as a tool to determine what is popular among listeners. Therefore, artists who do not fit into the algorithm may not get many listeners.
IndiePulse Music Magazine writer Joseph Timmons published an article last summer explaining the benefits and consequences of this practice.
“Streaming services use algorithmic personalization as a key tool. These algorithms study users’ listening habits. Then, they suggest songs and artists that match their tastes. This approach makes the listening experience more personal than traditional media,” Timmons wrote. “Recommendation algorithms, despite their benefits, face bias concerns. Studies show a trend. They often favor certain artists, which worsens inequalities in the music industry. Striving for fairness and transparency in algorithmic personalization is a persistent challenge for streaming services.”
Due to this, many upcoming artists may hesitate to create new music, fearing that they may not gain listeners. Curry explained the risks musicians face when creating original work.
“There is a certain legitimacy to the fear of creating original music. It’s encouraging to see random small artists go viral because it makes you think ‘that could be me!’, but in some ways, new artists may feel discouraged from creating original music because if you stray away from what is popular, then you are going to have a smaller/niche audience,” Curry said. “On the other hand, there are so many artists out there making music in the popular style to compete with. Even though it’s risky, I personally believe that truly original and genuine music is what new artists should focus on creating for this reason.”
Even though streaming media brought negative aspects to the industry, it also increased accessibility, expanding the range of listeners. It can be frustrating to see some artists become popular while others do not, but there will always be people who listen and feel impacted.
In the end, it will not be the artists with the most numbers who are remembered, because popularity can fade, but those who used the real purpose of music: making people feel seen and loved.
