I will address this in at least two parts because it's a big topic.
Let's use streaming TV as an example. At one point, it was inexpensive, but now it's starting to cost as much as cable. That's because companies like Netflix moved from attracting as many new customers as possible to making themselves profitable.
Now that these companies have added advertising-supported tiers, they've moved from attracting new customers to profitability to using advertising to charge you less.
At the same time, they're trying to keep your eyeballs with them and no one else because they are getting paid - in part - by how many people are watching and how long they're watching.
Spotify has had a free tier forever, but now advertising is their new growth area, so if you use the free version of Spotify, their goal is to keep you listening as long as possible. As a result, you hear more advertising, and they can charge more for the ads they sell.
What I’ve written about above is a quick explainer of the attention economy: in our information and entertainment-saturated world, the ability of these streaming outlets to get you to focus and spend more time with them than other outlets is the new frontier in the journey for these companies, and for you as an artist.
How do you maneuver as a singer, songwriter, and entertainer in this new environment? That will come in part two.
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for future blog topics, contact me at larry@ninenorthmail.com - thanks for reading!
