The Uncomfortable Truth About Spotify
Every so often, a new music startup comes along claiming it has solved music streaming. It will give us higher-quality audio, pay artists better, and finally dethrone Spotify from its stranglehold on the industry. Then, inevitably, a few months or years later, it quietly shuts down and joins the graveyard of failed streaming startups.
Don't get me wrong. I support the mission of building something better. But there's one assumption that almost every company gets wrong, and it ultimately leads to its downfall. They think caring about artists is enough to make listeners change their habits.
They tell us artists will get a share of the profits, have a real say in how the platform works, and finally receive the respect they deserve. And we say, "Thanks, I'll stick with Spotify."
Why are we like this?
For most people, music plays a functional role in their lives. It's something to put on in the background while they're cooking, working out, or commuting. Telling them to switch from Spotify is like telling them to shop at a supermarket that's farther away and more expensive. Their local store would have to either poison their family or seriously overcharge them to justify the hassle of switching.
Even for more dedicated fans, it's still a classic chicken-and-egg problem. These new services aren't as fast or polished as Spotify. You have to use some weird third-party service to transfer your library, none of your friends are there, and the catalog is often smaller. So unless these startups can match Spotify's multibillion-dollar offering, they're not asking us to switch to an equal alternative. They're asking us to accept a worse experience.
That's the part these companies seem to miss.
Competing on Spotify's terms is obviously a losing battle, so the strategy needs to change. Maybe instead of trying to sell us on improving life for artists, these new apps should focus on improving life for listeners too. That could mean making listening more social or dramatically improving music discovery. I don't know exactly what the answer is, but the current approach feels less like a compelling product and more like a request to donate to charity.
Sure, some people will take up the cause. Plenty of music fans buy records, support artists on Bandcamp, and show up to gigs. But when it comes to streaming, convenience usually wins.
Spotify didn't become dominant because it was fair. It became dominant because it was easy. Any company hoping to replace it will have to remember that.
For the record, I use Apple Music, Bandcamp, and buy CDs.