I ran into Tedx Talk video on Youtube by Alan Cross who discusses the history timeline of music records from the very first record types all the way to current streaming services, such as Spotify. He criticizes this new type of listening format for various reasons, for example its’ effects on music listening behavior and the payment model concerning how the artists, songwriters etc. get paid from these music streaming companies. Alan explains the issue of a 30 second rule: music artists only get paid if a track is played for 30 seconds or more. This trend possibly has effects on how the music will be written and produced and therefore influences our music listening experiences. Alan also implies in the video that effortless access to music, our tendency to skip so many music tracks upon listening and the fashion of streaming services to recommend us music based on our previous listening are acting as barriers for having a rich music experience. Here’s a link to Tedx Talk by Alan Cross:
This video made me think more about the role of music streaming in determining our experiences and behaviors when listening to music. I do find music streaming to be a very positive thing, but it is refreshing to hear some critique about it as well. The payment model on these streaming services is problematic not just for the music producers but also for the consumers. Still, I don’t find this issue to result primarily from the music streaming format itself, since it seems to be more of a music streaming business policy. ”The rich music experience” Alan talks about in his Tedx Talk and how it’s lacking when we consume music via streaming is something I agree with only partly. Some trends such as 30 second rule and music recommendations may be counterproductive from this standpoint, but it has been studied that by adopting music streaming people play more music, not just substantially but also more diversely (Datta et al., 2018). Streaming services allow people to find more new and diverse music effortlessly, although people who find the vast selection of music demanding to choose from might end up listening to preselected music, such as recommended tracks or playlists. Music streaming could offer interesting topics to study from music analysis and music psychology perspectives. Possible research questions could be for example: does the 30 second rule influence the musical characteristics of new music or does the new music listening format affect our cognitive abilities, such as motivational factors or ability to concentrate?
Source:
Datta, H., Knox, G., & Bronnenberg, B. J. (2018). Changing Their Tune: How Consumers’ Adoption of Online Streaming Affects Music Consumption and Discovery. Marketing Science, 37(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1051
Music, Mind & Technology 
Something that I wrote about on my own blog post was the question about how we price music. For streaming musicians get next to nothing for their music, but at the same time there is no physical media that they had to pay for, so the pricing should be based on the music itself. And that raises an interesting question: what is music devoid of physical medium worth?
One thing I definitely think should be improved in streaming platforms such as Spotify is the fact that people do not get to see who played on the record and who mixed it and such. Maybe some sort of digital booklet to go with the songs and albums would be beneficial? Often the main artist gets the limelight when there are multiple people who have worked on the music (that is if the artist isn’t the sole producer of the music)
Otto Donner once said that the problem is not the playlists themselves but rather what is on the playlists. Even though I do not agree with the subtle stance this saying has about modern music, I do agree with the fact, that playlists are not the problem, but maybe the way they are constructed. And maybe not necessarily an problem, but rather something that affects the way we listen to music. Spotify has driven the music industry towards a way more single song based era, where singles aren’t used to promote albums anymore, but the single is the driving force of streaming age.
-Samuel
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